Unconditional
by EdithType
Summary: When fanaticism evolves, Kara and Lena face a dangerous scenario in which both have to work together to protect more than just themselves.
1. Chapter 1: Taken

**Hi! It took me a long time to be back; believe me, a lot of things have happened in my life, and I mean A LOT. However, this isn't my story, so let's go with Supergirl.**

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters. They all belong to CW's Supergirl.

…

CHAPTER 1: Taken

…

"I'm sorry, Alex; I truly do. But I can´t trust him. Not after what happened, it´s hard for me to…"

"He helped me, he tried to fix things…" She said with a hard voice.

"The same way he 'fixed things' when he went to the DEO and stole the alien registry."

"That was different…"

"And how do you know Jeremiah has changed?" Asked Kara.

"He helped to save those aliens, he told me about the spaceship…"

"And later you were about to depart to another planet…"

"We´re clearly getting nowhere here." Alex stood up to take a new clean glass from the kitchen, her feet stumbled a bit, the effect of alcohol clearly affecting her; but she wasn´t finished… still saying goodbye to what she thought was gonna be her future with Maggie… her father contacting her after months of absence… Was the list going to continue? She poured more whisky.

"I want to believe in him, I do, I just don't know what we're dealing with this time… I don't want to see you disappointed again, I can't see you losing him…"

"Guess what? That's precisely the subject of this conversation." Alex turned to face her sister with a clenched jaw. "It´s not my fault if you wanna feel miserable leaving the people you love to go away like you did with Mon-El. You may be used to losing people, but I'm not!"

The immediate second after the last sentence, she wished to go back in time and stop. Did she actually say that?

On the other hand, Kara didn't say anything… truth was, she couldn't and the agent realized the weight of those words. The blonde put her glasses back in place with that nervous movement Alex knew was to hide tears building up. Even her drunk state started to fade away with what has felt like an ice bucket.

"Kara, I didn´t…" She left the bottle on the table and stretched her arm to reach the Kryptonian; a hand that never made it, because Kara automatically stepped back feeling uncomfortable.

"I… I need some air. I'm sorry."

So she flew out of the window, leaving the pizza box that was supposed to be dinner for their night; a night Alex didn't even remember until Kara had knocked at her door.

It was going to be an awkward situation. Now she had to deal not only with her own depression, but also Jeremiah, plus fixing things with Kara. How was it that both times Jeremiah had tried to come back, she had taken out all of her insecurity and frustration on Kara? Probably because she was the closest one.

Except, Kara wasn't the problem.

Her phone rang.

"Danvers."

 _"_ _Alex"_ it was Winn, _"there's a fire; the reason we're concerned about it is the emission of some radiation in the place. Kara is already on her way."_

"I'm heading to the DEO right away."

…

"Help!"

Even without superhearing, she could have heard that desperate call.

Supergirl turned to look over her shoulder gazing a fireman supporting a young man, she was sure she recognized the victim from somewhere, but under these circumstances, there was not time for thinking.

"The basement! There was someone in the basement!" Gestured the victim.

The fireman looked at Supergirl "Go! I'll take this man outside." Another fireman came to support the other side of the young guy, notifying there was no one left in the burning house.

"Winn, I'm going down, there's someone in the basement!"

 _"_ _Be careful."_ Advised an uncomfortable Alex on the other line, but she meant it.

There was a moment of silence and the older sister thought neither of them were ready to talk yet.

"I will." Kara finally said with a soft voice, which gave Alex hope for a conversation later. Kara had forgiven her, she always did. After Astra, she concluded that was another of Kara´s powers.

She headed the basement.

When she made it downstairs to the bottom of what used to be a house, it was hot, but she had not issues with fire; however, the lack of oxygen was starting to be a problem, she had to be quick or she would fall unconscious leaving a dead man behind.

"Here! Supergirl, over here! Please."

Having a curtain of smoke clouding her view, she used her x-ray vision bringing confusion at the sight; there was no one there. She stepped ahead just in case her senses were failing already, but found a speaker instead of a person.

Something pinched the back of her neck followed by pain.

Supergirl could barely react as her legs gave in. A half cry came out of her, but a hand drowned it by covering her mouth.

 _"_ _Kara?"_ Asked Alex with concern.

 _"_ _What's going on?"_ Winn asked too.

"Shh… shh… I got you, it's ok." The masculine voice she previously heard asking for help said next to her ear; the needle went out, the syringe dropped and he took her weight from the back.

In a quick move, the bud in her ear was taken off.

The man started to drag her; she felt her body and legs sliding above debris and wood. The heat was so intense she wondered how a human could walk and talk so easily in there. When she finally had the chance, she looked up and saw a black mask. The world was spinning and after blinking, what sounded like a door being closed was the only noise before the basement was left behind to be replaced by a wet tunnel.

Her eyes closed and when she woke up again, she was outside, still being dragged. Whatever she was pinched with, made her feel weak, but it didn't feel quite like kryptonite, this was something else; something different. Her eyes gave in and another time loss happened; when her eyes opened, she found herself in the back of a truck. Being taken to the unknown.

…

"Kara?!" Alex kept calling for her.

"I'm going in." J'onn departed in urgency.

"Where is she, Winn?" In a quick move, the agent stood next to the IT guy, looking after surveillance footage and scanners.

"According to the tracker in her earbud, she´s still inside the house… do you think she fainted or something?"

"No, Kara would have alerted us if something like that was about to happen."

"Look, J´onn is arriving already." Winn pointed the small icon on the screen.

"Something's off, Winn."

 _"_ _Found her earbud. This looks like it used to be a provisional laboratory, there´s plenty of substances we have to analyze."_ They heard J'onn on the other side.

"What?" Alex took a desperate hand to her forehead.

 _"_ _She's not here… I can´t see… give me a moment…"_

"J'onn? What is it?" Alex could hear wood cracking. Then the sound of the fire vanished.

 _"_ _A tunnel… there was a door hidden behind what looked like a table."_ The whoosh of air surprised Winn and Alex for a few seconds. _"Just went to the end of the tunnel, I'm at Newman St."_

"No sign of her?"

 _"_ _Negative, Alex. It's all dark and I can´t find her anywhere around with my x-ray vision."_ The Green Martian sighed.

"Um… guys? Alex, the News on the TV…" Winn left his spot to stand next to a bunch of other agents watching a huge screen reading the title 'MISSING Lena Luthor.'

"Lena Luthor has disappeared…" Alex barely whispered.

 _"_ _Agent Schott?"_

"Yes sir." Winn stopped looking at the TV.

 _"_ _Inform the other agents Supergirl has been taken. I'm going back to the DEO. Lena Luthor might be involved."_

 _TBC…_


	2. Chapter 2: Revealed

**Guys you're awesome! I'm on a rush right now, but I wanna post this first so you can keep going with it. I'll reply to your reviews as soon as I can, I promise! THANK YOU!**

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters. They all belong to CW's Supergirl.

…

CHAPTER 2: Revealed

…

She didn't want to wake up. Her limbs were slightly trembling and she couldn't know why.

Her mind played every detail of what happened in the previous hours… the fire, the wounded guy, the basement and… Her eyes opened in realization of facts. Although her head felt extremely heavy, Kara pushed it up. She was in a room, a weird room only illuminated by dim light. In front of her there was a wooden chair and a prayer bench, both pointed towards her. When she tried to move, she noticed the straps and chains around her waist, ankles and wrists; she was chained to the floor. A few candles around her. Sitting up was hard, and when she made it, somehow turning around, she spotted the crest of her family printed with a golden ink on fabric at the back… then she saw them. Fear made her shiver when the Kryptonian noticed pictures of her covering the walls; pictures of Supergirl during missions, while flying, newspaper articles, TV screenshots, plenty of magazine notes; every piece of paper carefully placed. Once her head focused on the left side, she saw an unconscious Lena Luthor tied to the wall.

"Oh my… Lena!" She tried to use her x-ray vision looking for any injuries but it didn't work. Whatever that was happening, she had no powers. "Lena, please wake up!"

"My goddess" A man's voice said with vehemence, entering the room.

Kara turned around, recognizing the man walking in her direction. "You… I remember you from…"

The man ignored her and made a reverence before kneeling on the prayer bench.

"What are you doing?" She asked not completely understanding things. "What is this place?"

There was no answer.

"What do you want with Lena Luthor?"

Past ten minutes, the man finally looked at her, his eyes red and swollen, half dried tears on his cheeks. He sat down on the chair.

"I… Are you ok?" Asked Kara now worried for him.

"You're here" his arms went wide open as if he was admiring a masterpiece. "My goddess… you've no idea of what being in your presence feels like…"

Lena started to stir, distracting both.

"Lena!"

"Supergirl?… Where am I?"

"Luthor." Said the man and his voice was cold.

"Who are you?" The CEO finally got aware of her own ties. "What is this place?"

"Lena, are you ok?"

"Yes… I'm fine I think." Lena saw the platform on which her friend was, having a sick look.

"Does anything hurt?" It was already an ugly scenario to be chained in a creepy room, and having Lena in there made it worse; because now Kara's concern was the CEO's safety.

"No, but you don't look… are you…"

Suddenly, the man slammed Lena´s face.

"NO!" Yelled Kara.

"How dare you to talk to her?!" Spat the man. "After everything your family has done to harm her and Superman. Don´t you dare to trick her?!"

"Lena!" Kara tried to move forward.

Lena was shocked by what was happening. In-between flashbacks, she remembered being on her way home after work at night, then her driver had been intercepted; someone cracked her window… now she was here.

"I'm ok Supergirl… that was nothing." She licked her lower lip, cleaning the tiny drop of blood.

"Don't you dare to touch her again!" Kara pulled herself up, but fell immediately in her weakened state.

"My goddess!" The man rushed to help her sit.

"Don't touch me…" She lifted her head, then it all came into place. "I remember you… from the Cult of Rao, I remember seeing you in their meetings… Tell me what this is."

"This is all for you, divine being."

"We've gone through this, I… I don't really understand."

"You will, my goddess."

"I am not a goddess."

"Rao has enlighten you with humility." He offered a warm smile.

The man stood up and started to light-on more candles around the room.

"This is wrong, whatever you want, let Lena out of this, she has nothing to do with…" She stopped talking as a wave of nausea forced her head go down to avoid dizziness. "What…" she mumbled. "What´s happening to me? What did you…"

"Supergirl? What's wrong?" Lena attempted to break free, but failed at it.

"It is a normal reaction from your body, my goddess."

"You pinched me with something… what was it?" She looked at him eyes half closed.

"A compound of my own." He replied leaving both women without words.

"Compound of what? Who are you?"

"How rude of me" the man rushed to kneel on the bench. "Please forgive me, my goddess! I was so impressed with your presence I didn't introduce myself."

While he kept murmuring in a low voice as if praying, Kara took the chance to look at her surroundings more carefully. There was a small door behind her captor.

"My name is Walter Johnson; a servant of yours, my goddess." He lowered his head. "I was indeed an important member of the Cult of Rao. My life is yours."

"Walter, what did you do to my powers?" Somehow, her state was worsening; breathing was harder.

"I neutralized them."

"What?" Asked the Luthor, being ignored by the man.

"Why?" Kara asked as well.

"It was necessary."

"I don't understand…" Nausea made her limbs bend. "Please, can I have some water?" She felt her throat closing.

Walter approached a short table on his right, next to Lena; he took the crystal jar and poured some water in a plastic glass. The way his whole body was trembling wasn't unnoticed for Lena. Later, he was supporting Kara´s chin to help her drink.

"Cadmus was my life…" were the first words of his answer, a few words enough to make Kara ran cold; Lena's gasp told her the CEO was not expecting this either. "But that's in the past, a dark past" he concluded.

He left the glass on the table again.

"What they made us do in there…" shame imprinted in his talking. "The tests, countless failed tests; hundreds of subjects thrown as garbage after our mistakes. Wonderful beings…" his eyes got lost, "beings like you." Both hands extended towards Kara.

Out of nowhere, he kneeled in front of her, really close. "You've not idea of what they were planning to do with you." There were tears in his eyes, a gaze full of fear. "I couldn't let that happen. You're too precious for that." He touched Kara´s chin again, but she rejected physical contact.

"Why am I here, Walter?"

"To save many others." He smiled.

"What are you…"

"I was assigned the responsibility of research regarding your physiology; we nourished our knowledge from the DEO, after Jeremiah Danvers hacked their database."

For a few seconds, the man kept talking, but Kara´s mind was somewhere else as the feeling of betrayal flourished again, remembering her own past and the painful experience Alex had to deal with. Despite Jeremiah's help afterwards, she was not entirely convinced about him yet. Now part of the reason of being trapped in there was a result of Jeremiah's betrayal, also risking Lena. "I was marveled by it…" Walter´s voice brought her back to present. "The more I studied you, the more fascinated I was. Trying to find something else about you, I found the Cult of Rao, and my vision expanded. I understood the gift we all got with you on Earth. I felt blessed with your presence on this planet. The ideology of Cadmus was horrendous compared to your grace… my conviction was shaped, I made the decision of leaving Cadmus behind, I escaped the moment they came to me for answers and a strategy… I couldn't be the one giving them a solution for a successful mission to capture you; instead, I brought you here."

"You captured me… what difference does it make?"

The captor got tense, apparently offended, but regained his posture immediately.

"I need you to cure me, my goddess." He begged.

"I…" Kara frowned trying to make sense of the situation; then his trembling caught her attention. "Your hands are…"

"I am a Biologist, specialized in genetics. And you, beautiful creature, will cure me of this disease."

"What happened to you?"

"I got infected with a Gruul subject during an experiment. Their immune system was nothing like ours; it was stronger, better, faster, it was unbelievable. I was captivated by its structure, thus I did a test on myself, but as you can see, it wasn't successful… Your physiology on the other hand, it´s more alike to human´s in so many ways… evolved. I need you to cure me… and together, we'll extent my discoveries to other lives, to save others; I would be honored to help you save others, to enlighten this planet."

"This isn't right, Walter. I do want to save others, but this isn't the way, we can´t…"

"I can!" The man exploded in anger. An attitude drastically different from the 'calmed' person he failed to show before. He took a deep breath. "You should sleep, your body needs to balance itself."

"What did you do to me?"

"You can barely breathe properly, yet you demand answers." He said with admiration. "The strength of a Rao's creature; my goddess."

"What do you want with Lena? Leave her out of this."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. I need her in order to reach my goal."

"How did you neutralize my powers?"

"Dear Kara Zor-El, I'm a Biologist, and you´re like a plant. I simply got rid of solar radiation in your body." He lowered his head one more time with respect, then turned around, ready to leave the room.

"Walter…" She had to support her weight on both hands.

"Rao will save us all. We'll make sure he comes."

He left.

"Damn it." Sighed Kara, looking down. She had to think on a way to get them out of there, at least Lena, so she could escape and ask for help.

"He called you Kara Zor-El… Kara." Lena abruptly pulled her out of her thoughts. Kara's eyes went wide to what that meant and a feeling of guilt came to surface.

Kara looked up to lock her eyes with Lena's, a mixed expression of anger and the one Kara recognized immediately as broken trust. The Luthor's eyes started to get red and wet.

"What a coincidence." She said with a bittersweet smile.

"Lena…"

"I can´t hear it right now…" Lena turned her head to hide tears.

Ashamed of the situation, Kara chose to stay silent. She lost balance and was about to hit the ground, but got to place a hand in time to stop it. Not even kryptonite had ever made her feel this bad.

"Hey…" Lena forgot disappointment for a moment after looking at Kara's condition. If this was a lie too, it was definitely a very good acting. "What´s wrong?"

"I don't know…"

The _crack_ of the door sounded again. Walter was entering the room once more when he saw Supergirl gasping for air.

"Your grace!" In a second, he was next to her; cleaning her wet forehead with a handkerchief.

"What did you do to her?!" Yelled Lena.

The scientist ran out of there, coming back after a few seconds carrying a syringe.

"No! What are you doing?!" The Luthor yelled from her spot.

"SHUT UP!" He spat at her. Standing up, he took tape from the pocket in his coat, and ripped a piece of it to forcefully cover her mouth.

"Leave her alone…" Kara pulled her chains again, but it was useless; too weak to even stand up.

"My goddess…" He caressed her cheek, a gesture Kara could barely oppose to. "I'll give you something that will make you feel better."

Lena watched him take the syringe, causing Kara to panic. The CEO tried harder to break free, but she couldn't. Its content was transparent, so definitely not kryptonite… but what was it then? Maybe Kara had lied to her and it made her feel angry, and sad… still she could not deny the fact that a part of her still cared for her friend even after that.

The Kryptonian fought to not let Walter administer whatever that was. In desperation, the man started to adjust the chains pushing Kara down until having her completely flat on the ground.

"No…" The blonde kept fighting.

Lena felt tears in her own eyes; she tried to yell but ended up making noises above the tape.

Walter kneeled beside Supergirl, using his hand to turn her head and finally be able to administer the transparent liquid in the base of her neck.

Kara shut her eyes tightly when the liquid burned a bit.

"Shh… trust me, my goddess. I know your body, you will feel better." Walter cleaned the tears that streamed down her pale face.

Lena wanted to kill this man. He looked at her with hatred eyes only to say: "You will be of use soon, Luthor."

TBC…


	3. Chapter 3: Truth

**Thank you so much to everyone for all of your reviews! If I had you in front of me, be sure I'll give you a big hug. To all guest reviews, which I can't reply to, your words are encouraging and I truly appreciate each! It'd be awesome if you could create an account so I can PM you too!**

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters. They all belong to CW's Supergirl.

…

CHAPTER 3: Truth

…

Then… she found herself surrounded by chaos. Sirens, cries, screams… Firefighters trying to extinguish fire; the police was evacuating civilians, others were being attended. Alex wanted to cry at the sight; all she could see were bodies spread in all directions. Many of them stained, some other in unnatural positions… but worst… most of them were young, so young. The smell of ashes and flesh was impregnated in the air. She used the back of her hand to cover her nose.

A festival was supposed to be a celebration day.

The DEO was not responsible for 'average' tragedies; except, this time a symbol was left at the scene after the explosion took place. A flag with a crest, the Cult of Rao´s crest with a headline written: 'Salvation will come'. A crest which, in the eyes of the government, was similar to Supergirl's… thus extraterrestrial life was involved, the case was DEO's duty now.

"How could they?" Asked Alex suppressing a broken voice when J'onn landed next to her, watching death.

"Terrorism is a thing… but when this is done by your own citizens, that's something else." He blinked to hide his blurry sight.

"Has all the perimeter been checked? We must be missing something…"

"Alex, focus." J'onn placed a hand on her shoulder.

"The children… J'onn… What if they're responsible for Kara's missing?"

"I admit I put my index finger over Miss Luthor straight away, but this… Either Luthor Corp has blood on it, or these people targeted Lena Luthor as well. After all, they worship Supergirl, and a Luthor is not well seeing after Superman and Lex."

"Has there been any new from Lena?"

"No, but now that the DEO has access to the case, I'm sure we can relate both disappearances and that will grant us responsibility on Lena too." Both moved aside to let a gurney pass by. "We've taken everything we need from here. We should let the paramedics work. Let's continue our search at the DEO."

…

"Lena?" Was the first word out of her mouth when she woke up.

"Hey, are you ok?" Lena shifted her position to allow her arms to rest and be able to have a better view of Kara.

"I'm fine."

"Don't lie to me, Kara."

"I'm tired, that's all." The Kryptonian pushed herself up when she realized her chains had loosened a bit.

"He adjusted the chains again after you passed out. I asked him for water so I could have an excuse to get the tape off… I agreed to stay silent in his presence."

Kara looked closely to Lena's exhausted features; the lack of sleep was evident. For a moment Kara wondered how even in a kidnapping situation, tied to the wall, hair made a mess, her friend could keep that sophisticated vibe she had.

"You should get some sleep, Lena."

"And leave you with that creepy biologist?" She smiled with sarcasm.

"I'll be ok, just rest for a little bit."

"Have you looked at yourself, Kara? You look far from ok. Are you sure there's nothing odd with whatever her put in you?" She frowned.

"It burned a bit, but now I feel incredibly fine compared to how I felt before. No dizziness, no nausea, no shivers… like I said, just tired; but I guess that's just 'cause I'm starving."

"Now I finally understand how was that you could eat a lot…" Lena's voice was flat, but Kara detected the hint of melancholy disguised.

She knew she had to fix things, if not fix, at least made them clear.

"I won't give you an average 'I'm sorry', Lena; because I'm aware of the consequences my actions brought."

"There's no need, I'm kind of used to it… people lying to me." Her words felt heavy for Kara. Lena wasn't looking at her, green eyes focus on a spot on the wall. "If I'm being honest, I suspected something… different about you. Your voice, those shinier than usual blue eyes, no sunlight tanned skin, facial features… I discarded similarities because I was happy to have you, and I told myself maybe I was so excited with your presence and support to the point where I was mixing Kara Danvers with Supergirl everytime she helped me." She made a pause to sigh, then a half sad smile appeared across her face. "Guess I haven't learned the lesson in matters of relationships. How naive."

By the time Lena finished speaking, tears had welled in Kara's eyes; realization of the impact she has had on Lena made her feel not worth it. "You did nothing wrong, Lena." The words left her lips before she could properly think of what to say. Now that she had started the conversation, she had to finish it, this time she was determined to unwrap herself to the Luthor. "Since I landed here, everything has been about staying low. Undercover. Jeremiah gave himself up to Cadmus to keep me outside labs and experimentation; eventually we were told he died during a mission. Eliza… sweet Eliza carried the world on her shoulders to give Alex and me the best life se could, at work, at home, at school; and Alex… my sister gave up most of her dreams to protect me, even if she says she didn't, she still makes decisions considering my well being." Kara noticed Lena was listening and watching her. "The Danvers were the first ones whose lives were affected by me. I know they chose to keep me, and you've no idea how thankful I am. However, a part of me still feels guilty, in a way; still feels like I don't entirely fit in; I can't fool myself, Earth isn't my home, but I find home in people, I find home in Alex for example. The Danvers never complained, but I could see what having me around was, and in your case and to many more, it was hiding myself; you've no idea of how many people I've lied to about my physical abilities accidentally shown a few times in the past, my… random urgency to get out of office, to drop off dates, and the list goes on. It's weird because I'm aware I have to stay with a low profile to protect my cousin and family, thus I protect them by hiding; except by doing so, I lie and betray others. I never let people get too close. I rather be alone than a hypocrite."

"Was it planned?" Asked Lena with a neutral face.

"What do you mean?"

"Getting close to a Luthor… Being at good distance to investigate, as a strategy of caution, to keep an eye on my plans…"

"No! Lena!" Shame found its way back to Kara's face. "I didn't even know Lex had a sister. My life as a journalist is how I keep myself stick to the ground, I'm passionate to tell the truth about…"

"Yet you didn't tell me the truth."

"You're right." Kara admitted in resignation, lowering her gaze." My life as Kara Danvers stands on a huge lie, and right now I feel like the worst person in the world, 'cause from everyone, you didn't deserve to be deceived. I confess that when I saw you, I felt intimidated, and a part of me was scared too, since you're a Luthor. Then it happened that out of nowhere, we started to know each other… I wasn't sure it was a good idea, even people around me told me it wasn't; but I…" She blushed a little bit. "I was fascinated with everything you did; considering how difficult your life was… you had the strength to keep your head up; you assigned yourself the responsibility to clean your family's name, to bring a company back from ashes… and your vision… the way you see the future, the way you stand for humanity and solutions to improve this world. I simply couldn´t believe that someone heartless would be capable to do all of that. You proved to be amazing, Lena…" She looked at Lena again and her friend was the one crying now, eyes still cold, but wet cheeks revealed the opposite. The first time ever, she saw Lena Luthor crying. "I deeply regret not telling you the truth before, Lena; I'm ashamed of it. This is my fault, not yours. You just wanna help people and I love that about you. I understand if you never want to see me again, but please, keep working to help others; even if I'm not one of them, there are honest people out there, and many others who need your help, your passion, your leadership. Lena… you don't have to prove anything to anyone, even if your family's reputation lies on you, even if the media harasses you; you, Lena Luthor, owe nothing to anyone; live for yourself, you don't have to please anyone, you're brilliant and you're always enough. You're one of the best people I know, and I'm sorry you're here because of me. I know you've lost faith in my words, but believe me on this one, I'll make sure you get out of here. I promise."

"From everyone, Kara, the one betrayal that could affect me was yours; the only person I really trusted. You hit right on the only weakness I had…" Lena shook her head with more tears streaming down her face. "I can't forgive you… not right now."

Kara felt the lump in her throat and couldn't help the tears streaming down her face. "I understand, Lena. You don't have to forgive me, I understand." She nodded. "Be sure you'll get out of here… You're sincerely stronger and more powerful than me…"

"My goddess." Walter came in followed by the young man Kara remembered from the fire, and a woman. He had a smile until her tears were evident. "What happened to you?" He was in front of Kara in the blink of an eye. The man turned to look at Lena. "Did she make you cry?!" His face contorted in anger.

"No." Kara replied immediately.

"SHE DID THIS TO HER!" He yelled to the women and the young man, who punched Lena on the face.

"NO! NO, LEAVE HER ALONE!" This time Kara took advantage of the proximity of Walter to hit his jaw with her head.

The young man also kicked Lena's ribcage; then saw how Walter was sent backwards by Supergirl.

"Hold her!" Walter ordered to the young man, as the woman helped him stand up and clean up his mouth.

Keeping distance, the guy Kara had rescued started to pull the chains again.

"I helped you!" She remembered him, but the young man kept tightening chains until Kara was face down the floor.

"DON'T!" Lena wanted to scream Kara's name but pain filled her torso. She saw as Walter climbed on top of Kara, legs on both sides of her, then putting his weight on her back so he could grab her hair and pull her head backwards to speak next to her ear.

"Why did you do that, my goddess?! My goal is to save the world with you! I live for you! My life is yours Kara Zor-El! Why did you punish me like that?!"

"KAR-" The woman covered Lena's mouth with more tape.

"Give me the sample tubes and the syringe!" The biologist commanded to the woman.

Lena's left wrist complained when a small cut ripped her skin when she pulled harder.

Walter on top of Kara, the young man holding her arm making sure the veins to be exposed and the woman assisting the scientist as he inserted the needle filling up sample tubes with Kara's blood.

The CEO feared the worst when she saw Kara's mouth opening and closing as a fish under the man; she was gasping for air, so she tried to alert him above the tape, he was suffocating Kara with his weight without realizing it as he kept filling another tube.

Luckily the woman had put the tape on a rush and Lena's breath and saliva helped the glue to slide off, allowing her to say a few words.

"Killgh… killing heghhh!" She yelled as best as she could when Walter finished filling the fourth tube. "Airgh! Offvv hegh!"

Finally, she got the woman's attention, who quickly informed Walter what Lena meant. The very moment he got off, Kara inhaled air desperately, coughing as air found its way back to her lungs.

The three of them kneeled around her asking forgiveness.

Lena Luthor used to think her brother was obsessive, but now that she had the chance to watch this, she was amazed of how distorted an ideology could get; even more surprised with its impact on people.

Kara was tired; she had told her she was fine, but Lena could see the color of her skin, even her hair looked ashen. There were drops of blood spread on the floor as clearly Supergirl had fought against these people, leaving a small wound in her arm.

…

"It means we don`t have a track of Lena." Concluded Winn. "Option one is someone made an incision to extract the tracker from Lena's body… or two, she is in some place where signals can´t reach devices."

"I have a team looking after footage to see patterns during the attacks. How many of them happened, Agent Schott?" Asked J'onn.

"They were three." Answered Winn, sliding his finger on the tablet. "Two bombs and the other one were ten grenades thrown from buildings around the square."

"Sir, all children events in the city had been cancelled as you ordered." Informed another agent.

"Excellent."

The Green Martian heard Alex's mind screaming in frustration due to a feeling of desperation in which the older sister felt useless at the case. They had no clue, not a lead to follow. Nothing.

"We'll find her." He reassured his statement.

"What scares me the most, is that I don't know what will be her condition when we do. Wherever she is, I hope she holds on." She swallowed to hide her voice.

"She is holding on."

…

"You did what?!" Asked Kara, not entirely believing Walter's voice.

"Rao will come to enlighten us!" He exclaimed with open arms.

"They're kids!" The Kryptonian was furious. These people had planned to attack, to trap, and to kill innocent kids, in Rao's name? She knew about these events, because she was meant to visit them and spend time with children. Kara didn't want to believe it was real, but Tony, the young man she had saved in the fire, showed them pictures of the attack. "NO! Why did you do that?! They're children! Just children!"

"We beg for Rao to come, to grant us divine light; salvation." Explained Tony.

"You're all insane." Kara's face was covered with tears again as she shook her head.

"It is all for you, beloved goddess." Spoke with a soft voice the woman Walter had called Amanda. "We will restore humanity and its destructive nature. With your help, with Rao's…"

"By killing people?! What kind of restoration is that?"

"We need to purify this land, for Rao to come; the only way is to spill innocent's blood."

"This is wrong…" Kara sobbed. "Stop this. You can do anything you want with me, but stop this, please… The three of you can keep me here for as long as you want, just stop killing people…"

"This isn't only about us, my goddess." Walter took the word. "We are too many. You've saved so many, we're all grateful. We're all a community, a brotherhood working together to purify National City, and we will expand our presence in the world."

"Don't worry, your grace; the ultimate sacrifice will be done." Amanda turned to look at Lena Luthor.

TBC…


	4. Chapter 4: Agreement

**Hello! I will reply to your awesome reviews asap! I've had a busier than usual week and I couldn't post this before as I wanted to; hopefully this next week won't be a rush, thus I'll be able to post soon woohoo! Also, if you wanna check out what other things I do in my breaks, search amzavisualart on instagram. Guys, from the bottom of my heart THANK YOU.**

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters. They all belong to CW's Supergirl.

…

CHAPTER 4: Agreement

…

"Are you positive you've seen him, Agent Danvers?" Asked J'onn.

Alex and her team were analyzing surveillance footage and media recording from the attacks.

"I do, I saw that guy the day they tried to detonate everything during the hockey match."

"Ma'am, I attended the day the fire was informed; the one in which Supergirl disappeared." Spoke agent Richards. "That man was the last victim rescued out of the house. He had a wound in his left leg and a small concussion; he came out of the hospital three days later."

"The fire was five days ago." Concluded J'onn. "Agent Scott, get me his record. As a patient, and as citizen."

"Right away." Winn sat back down on his chair.

The Martian spotted Alex frowning in front of the screen, following her team associations of the scene; clearly, they were already finding patterns.

"How did it happen?"

Alex snapped out of her thoughts when she heard J'onn's voice. "Sir…" She took a deep breath, asking the other agents to give her space. "Attack number one, the festival. Everything seems normal, then we have the man with the gray hoodie; he has a girl no older than seven holding his hand. According to records, she is his daughter. They seem normal, until this other blonde woman passes by his side, giving him what looks like a teddy bear. The next we see is the man keeping the bear in his hand while he walks towards the hotdogs cart; in there, he hands the teddy bear to his kid; more people are in line for a hotdog; while he pays for the food, the little girl places the bear next to the small gas tank. After that, both walk away eating as if nothing has happened."

"How did you discard the hotdog cart?"

"It went through a filter to prove things were clear. According to legislations, a children parade has different standards, very strict standards of security for food and entertainment. A kid carrying a teddy bear is a clever move, and a good place to hide a bomb, plus place it next to a tank to have higher potential."

"You do realize that little girl is part of a crime, don't you?"

"I do, Sir." Alex nodded nervously. "I'm also afraid the list continues with the festival, where the second attack happened. This scenario was slightly different considering the bomb was carried in a boy's toy, a green truck… The third attack, that one was a massacre, people simply thrown grenades at the crowd. The police department has suspects, but none of them confirmed yet."

"I got him!" Winn raised his hand, turning on his chair to gesture Alex and J'onn to approach him.

"What have you got?" Alex was the first one to reach his desk.

"Anthony Sheedy. 24 years old, tan skin, hazel eyes, dark curly hair. Graduated from National City University, he's a chemist."

"Probably the one who helped to create the bombs…" Supposed J'onn.

"The other people involved, those we can see in the footage… I don't recognized them; however, I assume Anthony is their only chemist, he had to be in the scene to guarantee the plan would work. The teddy bear one was easy, it just needed a sparkle to use the gas for its benefit, but the toy car was different, the festival was public; filters were pretty much none, I assume the complexity of the bomb was perfected in order to detonate by itself." Explained Alex.

"Has he been seen lately?"

"I already have a facial recognition plug on the run, Sir."

"Agent Danvers." A female agent interrupted.

"Yes, Dalia?"

"We have Jeremiah Danvers at the main door asking for you. He handed himself to the DEO."

…

"Why is it not working, my goddess?!" Walter was exasperated talking to Kara, sweat covering his forehead.

The scientist took a scalpel out of his pocket to make a small cut on his forearm, from which a darker than human, blood emerged.

"It's still poisoned!"

"What if you altered her immune system alongside the compound you used to neutralize her powers?" Suggested Tony.

"SHUT UP!" Walter turned around and grabbed the intimidated chemist by his t-shirt. "Don't you think I know what I'm doing?!" He pushed Tony to the wall, then started to walk in Kara's direction.

Lena started to laugh under her tape to distract him, something that made the man angrier.

Walter could be a man around his fifty's but he looked as strong as a young man. With a clenched jaw, he went after Lena.

"Walter, stop!" Kara called him trying to stand up, but her legs failed.

"What are you laughing about?" With a rude move, he grabbed Lena's chin.

The Kryptonian didn't have her powers, but she didn't need any special vision to notice Lena's skin was even paler than usual. Her breathing was erratic and by judging her posture, ties and everything, she saw the Luthor was contracting her torso, trying to move it as carefully as she could.

 _Her ribs…_

"You're not in the best position to laughing, Luthor." Suddenly, Walter went too close to the point where he started to smell the skin of Lena's face.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Yelled Kara as her anger boiled.

The CEO pulled back disgusted by the contact; but the man kissed her cheek, removing the tape, getting a flinch from Lena when the cut on her lip was stretched.

"You'll help me to create an antidote." Said Walter with a threatening tone.

"Like hell..." Replied Lena and her response transformed into a gasp of pain when the man touched her ribcage.

"LENA!" Kara tried to get Walter's attention back.

"Did you believe I didn't notice? The way your body is positioned, your breathing, your skin, your pupils…" He leaned to say next to her ear, in a lower voice. "You think I haven't noticed the way you look at her…" He put distance between them again.

Lena hardened her gaze towards him.

"Now, dear traitor of Rao… You're a genius, aren't you? You will help me to develop an antidote for myself; on the contrary, I would have to drain our beloved daughter of Rao until I find the antidote myself."

"She's your goddess. You can't dispose of her like that." Said Lena.

"Her purpose is to save others; my goddess is selfless, my goddess is salvation; she will indeed serve her purpose by saving me and after that, saving others through me, with my knowledge… no matter what it takes."

…

"What is this for, Jeremiah?" Asked J'onn on the other side of the table, next to an uncomfortable Alex.

Jeremiah's first reaction was to use both hands to explain, except the chains and handcuffs broke silence.

"I know Kara is missing."

"Most citizens in National City are aware of Supergirl's absence." Commented J'onn arms crossed.

"Look… I know neither of you have reasons to believe in my words anymore…"

"You stabbed our back." Henshaw pointed out.

"I'm responsible for my actions, yes; but Kara isn't and things have distorted."

"What do you mean Kara isn't responsible for your actions? What did you do?" This time Alex's behavior changed, transforming her into a determined agent, alerted by news. She stretched her back leaning towards Jeremiah to place a couple of serious eyes on her father.

"I believe I know what she's going through."

"Speak clearly, Jeremiah." Demanded the Green Martian.

"I tried to reach you with anticipation," he headed Alex, "but I couldn't know how soon things would happen." He then looked at both. "You're probably looking after a man called Walter Johnson, a biologist who used to work for Cadmus… We used to work together."

"What does this has to do with the Cult of Rao? They left a flag at the scene." J'onn frowned.

"He, as many others, lost his mind between research and experimentation regarding specific abilities from aliens; therefore, one day he did a test on himself… and things went wrong. We were sort of colleagues…"

"Of course." Nodded Alex with sarcasm.

"Later I knew they had captured Kara alongside Mon-El. I knew what Cadmus was planning to do after getting access to the Fortress of Solitude. Walter was anxious to put his hand on them, of course I couldn't allow that, so I helped them scape."

"Then they got you again and used you as bait so you could infiltrate the DEO and betray us." Concluded Alex.

"Honey, there were lives at risk…" He gulped. "As time passed by," he changed the conversation, "I found out about the Cult of Rao; I wondered what it was and if it represented a threat for Kara and Clark. It did. I realized it was even more dangerous when I saw Walter as one of the main heads of the movement. He used to talk about genetics, cure for diseases, anatomy; he even shared knowledge from Cadmus. I hid myself amongst the crowd and… the ideology got twisted; having Supergirl and Superman in service to Earth wasn't enough, they started to go for the source, to go after Rao."

"I saw the way they worship Rao; the hope they put on Kara. Why kidnapping her? How was a human capable of capturing Kara?" Alex was still not entirely convinced.

"Because of me."

"What do you mean?

"I believe to know how he was able to capture her… Do you remember that time Supergirl attacked the city? The day J'onn Jones revealed himself?" Jeremiah looked at Hank.

"The red kryptonite."

"Yes. When it happened, Cadmus wished to show itself to the world and reduce credit to the DEO, to appear as the heroes so new alien regulations could be proposed." Realizing Alex and J'onn were not entirely following him, he tried to explain things better. "Alex, you witnessed when Kara's powers emerged, the struggle she went through. I designed those glasses to restrain her x-ray vision… but that wasn't my only research."

"What did you find out?" The Green Martian started to walk around him.

"As some days containment for Kara's powers got harder, I looked after a way to reduce solar radiation in her system, to help her."

"To make her weak?" Declared Alex.

"We could not keep her in the basement under a red sun light emitter for hours…" He countered.

"How did it work?" Hank tried to break tension.

"It was a chemical process based on the way photosynthesis operates in flora, only the opposite… When the red-k happened, Cadmus used my research as resource to create a solution to contain Supergirl; Walter, as the main biologist, was assigned to develop the substance, so it could be placed in darts."

"You gave them a solution to get rid of Kara?!" Alex lost her patience. "You don't even have to explain about how you were 'forced' to do it." She bluffed.

"They obtained that knowledge since the first day I got in, they knew everything about my work; I couldn't even oppose to it." He lowered his gaze. "Recently, after a meeting of the Cult of Rao in which Walter promised his followers to be in the presence of Supergirl, I knew there was something suspicious behind it, thus I hid and I heard some keywords related to my research." His eyes locked with Alex´s one more time. "That's the reason I tried to reach you, but now we're out of time… Walter is brilliant, but I never really tested my own creation, I'm concerned about his progress or success regarding a Kriptonian's physiology." He made a pause. "I know Kara's possible location."

…

"Walter." Amanda stood by the doorframe, serious and strangely tense.

Without releasing Lena, the biologist glared Tony and the guy went to listen whatever the woman had to say. She left and Tony went straight to where Walter was, nervousness suddenly present in his attitude.

"What?" Asked the man.

"All children events have been canceled." He replied playing with his fingers to reduce tension.

"As expected." Walter shrugged.

"Wait… what?"

"Why do you think our next… fireworks location is the mall? Let's go for bigger… I mean, older leagues."

"You can't attack the mall…" Lena went into their conversation but Walter slapped her again. Forcing a painful cry when he torso involuntary moved.

"Shh! How disrespectful…"

"You will what?" Questioned Kara from her spot.

"It will all be over soon my goddess." The man gave her a warm smile.

"No… Walter, this isn't the way… Look at me."

"Rao is the way, I'm just clearing the path for him to come."

"Rao is light and love, you are dishonoring his true nature by harming others." Kara tried to make him understand. "I stand for hope, for compassion, for love; that's Rao's light."

"My benevolent goddess… I believe a life amongst humans has corrupted you already."

"Stop this Walter!" Supergirl commanded after lost patience, struggling a bit to raise her body and chin, claiming respect. "You speak in the name of Rao as if you were a priest devoted to him, when in real facts you destroy, you kill…" Even her eyes were hard as she spoke. "Let me tell you something, human…" she said it like that to show a fake superiority, "you might be brilliant for sciences; nevertheless, you use them to hurt, to please your own ideologies. Rao… my Rao, must be ashamed to have a being like you speaking in his name. Stop this nonsense before Rao comes to do justice; who do you think you are to use your own hands in the name of Rao's will? You are not dignified for your actions, you are a mere human and as painful as it feels, you are not a Kryptonian!"

Silent was left after Kara's words. She was trembling in anger, regretting what she had just said without putting a filter in her mind; she had let herself be taken by emotions.

Fearing for a vulnerable Lena under a serious Walter, she made the best she could to look powerful.

"Proceed with the attack." Was Walter's order for Tony without taking his eyes from Kara, without blinking, without breathing.

"N-…" Kara was about to say something when Lena's voice broke in.

"I'll help you create the vaccine; in exchange stop the attack."

Finally, the man's eyes went back to her.

"Exchange?" He asked intrigued, a smile of sarcasm on his face.

"You want to save others, don't you?" Lena started to negotiate, buying them time. "You think I haven't seen the trembling, the erratic breathing, your limbs barely noticeable failure, the sweat dampening you face… You need this vaccine as soon as possible, if you want to accomplish your purpose."

"Lena…" Kara didn't want her to be at risk; even more knowing her friend was injured.

"Luthor, we have an agreement." Walter kissed her cheek, making Lena close her eyes and take a deep breath avoiding nausea. "Shall we untie you?"

TBC…


	5. Chapter 5: Cult

**I'm back! It's still January, thus HAPPY AND WONDERFUL 2018! I'm sorry it took me a while to update, but here it is and be sure I'll finish it soon, really soon (chapter 6 already on the work).**

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters. They all belong to CW's Supergirl.

…

CHAPTER 5: Cult

…

The team covered two blocks on each direction. Alex wished she had a bigger crew, but a sudden attack at the mall had happened and most of the DEO was attending the call.

Her team were around twelve agents; herself, Jeremiah, and J'onn included. Unluckily, Winn had been assigned to assist the rescue at the mall. They had to stay under the water, as Jeremiah had said "The less suspicious the better." Here they were, taking advantage of chaos at the mall, to go into a rescue mission to get Kara. They had assumed most of the Cult of Rao would be watching destruction on the other side of the city; this was their chance… unless Jeremiah betrayed them one more time. Alex was no fool, she wouldn't let that happen again, it hurt in the deepest way, but aiming a gun at her father, making a decision, reacting, pulling the trigger… she was ready to do it if necessary.

"There." Jeremiah stopped at the corner of a building, hiding from something, he looked across the street, pointing to a drugstore entrance. The fact was, having an attack in the city had started evacuations everywhere; that area of downtown included.

"A store? How convenient…"

"This is Anthony's family store. Their chemist."

"Are his parents aware of this place?" Asked the Green Martian.

"They are."

"How do we get in?"

"That's why I asked Winn for a device to pause surveillance footage, the whole drugstore has eyes in and out." He took out a small silver square from his pocket. "I just need to hold this up… then push…"

Using the visor in her gun, Alex saw how the red light on the camera at the main entrance turned off. She took cautions looking after those she could see inside the building, and none of them seemed to be on.

"All clear from here." J'onn frowned letting them know he was using x-ray vision. "Are you positive this is the…"

"The walls underground were made based on Cadmus's ones. Why do you think this man chose Tony to be his chemist? All metals combined, lead included, are his work."

"Let's move then." Alex stepped forward.

"Keep eyes everywhere, just in case." Jeremiah warned beside her.

…

"This better works, Luthor." Walter grabbed the tube, then sucked some of the substance into a syringe.

While he was busy making sure the compound was safe by putting it on a Petri dish for the microscope, Lena took a look at all different substances through the crystal door of the fridge, analyzing what possible things he had injected into Kara... what if she could find something to reverse the effect? But imitating solar radiation was a challenge, definitely something she had never done before. Lena memorized everything contained in the vaccine created for Walter, the one from him and the one she had done. She could not deny the excitement of what looking into a Kryptonia´s blood caused in her chest; her mind ran ideas of its potential, its components, its marvelous structure, but this was Kara's blood; blood that after being compared with a few samples Walter had collected during their first day in there, it was losing its regenerative process, even slower than human's. This is bad… If the sun was giving a Kryptonian powers, then neutralize them should leave Kara's body human like… but even a human cell looked stronger than the way Kara's cells were looking. There was a secondary effect in this, one that clearly Walter didn't care. She had to do something, but what? She couldn't just start to test sample after sample, there was no recipe for her to follow to counter attack the damage being done to Kara.

It was ironic; she was hurt, no broken ribs 'cause she could walk… a least somehow; and damn it was painful, she lost count of how many times she grimaced at what felt like spikes ripping inside her. Truth was, using the tools at her disposal in that lab gave her the chance to try to escape, except she couldn't leave Kara behind.

Now that the biologist was distracted, she took a lab spatula; Walter had been careful and nothing sharp was at sight, breaking glass wouldn't work either because of the noise… the spatula was her best shot and she was determined to make it her own improvised weapon.

Apparently it was just Kara and them. Lena had only seen Amanda and Tony, but no sound was heard on their way back to what the man had referred as "The sacred room."

Walter opened the door back to Kara.

Lena was wrong.

They weren't alone.

Cold faces turned to look at her. There were around fifty people, a wide range of ages; the younger one was probably sixteen, all gathered wearing dark blue robes. If Lena had thought this was a small room, her calculations had failed, because somehow all of them were there. She stretched up looking for Kara above the crowd, but her friend was nowhere to be seen.

"What is this?" She was about to turn around to face Walter, but someone kicked the back of her knees forcing her to the floor.

Her body hit the ground, her torso complaining at it, and she couldn't even screamed since hands started to drag her. Walter looked smaller as distance was put between them, a warm smile on his face.

"Traitor!" Someone yelled from the crowd as Lena was surrounded by feet and knees, unable to stand up. Her hands were tied on her front, she tried to stop the pain out of her scalp as whoever was dragging her was pulling her by the hair.

"Shame on you!"

"Blasphemous!"

"Monster!"

"Kill her!"

Some of them spilled on her, a few kicks reached her back, left side and legs; so she reacted, and used her legs to make a few stumble on her way to wherever they were taking her.

"Lena!" She recognized Kara's voice in the middle of curses, complains and words she could not understand.

The Luthor wished to do more, but she was weak, starving, tired after lack of sleep and in pain. Maybe adrenaline was acting at the moment, but strength started to fail as her torso was stretched, finally ripping a scream from her lips.

Someone punched her head and her vision blurred. She made out blonde hair, then Kara's eyes while hands chained her already tied hands to the floor.

"Lena, look at me!"

Following Supergirl's voice she found Kara a step higher than her, a golden crest of El hanging from her neck. Her friend was on four still attached to the ground, paler than the last time she had seen her, candle lights reflected on her wet forehead, purple bags under her eyes and dried blood coming out of her nose.

The yelling stopped leaving silent prayers as people in the room lowered their heads.

"Lena, look at me…"

"Y-Yes, I'm here Kara." Replied Lena shaking her head to focus.

"You don't look ok." Supergirl's eyes had tears about to fall.

"Should I hand you a mirror?" The CEO joked.

"Been better." Kara's reaction was a tired smile, which meant gold for Lena… until it disappeared. "I'm sorry."

"What?" Asked Lena while cleaning blood from her lip with the back of her hand. "What for? Kara, you've nothing t-to apologize for."

"You're here because of me… Somehow, I always knew relating you with Supergirl would put you at risk, and I'm very sorry you're here. I wanted to tell you who I am, but on the other side I didn't want to because I was afraid of something happening to you… this is exactly what I wanted to avoid…"

"Kara, with or without Supergirl, it is my last name which has me here today. It's my family's name."

"You shouldn't be here…"

"Brothers and sisters!" Walter's voice echoed and heads went up to look at him. "Today, we are gathered as faithful servants in Rao's glory. Today, we stand up! Today, we will make history! Today, salvation will come! Today, a new world begins! An enemy of Rao is our enemy; our new world begins with the end of our enemies! Luthor…" Eyes placed on Lena.

The crowd cheered him up.

"STOP!" Kara's voice was hoarse but firm after realizing what they pretended to do. "ALL OF YOU! STOP THIS NONESENSE!"

"My goddess." Walter walked as if floating to carefully take Kara's face in his hands. "My goddess…"

"Stop this Walter." She spoke only to him. "You've distorted everything. This isn't Rao, this isn't love, this isn't peace; this is wrong, Walter. These people… they search for peace, not this."

The man couldn't help the tears that started to trail down his cheeks.

"Please, Walter. I promise to share everything I know about Rao with you; the story behind Kryptonian's religion. Rao is compassionate, I would teach you prayers for him, I will share it with all of you." Panting, she kept going believing regret was finding its way to the biologist and more tears fell. "I will..." Soon, she felt the so familiar reaction of her body towards kryptonite; but, where was it? Kara couldn't keep her head up, her body started to tremble under the effects of a glowing green someone from the crowd handed him. It was a cup with liquid kryptonite in it, its shiny green impossible to ignore in between the dim light candles provided.

"My beloved goddess…" Walter sobbed holding her head with one hand and approaching the cup with the other one, closer to Kara.

"Kara!" She heard Lena struggling to get free because of the sound of chains being pulled.

On the corner of her eye, Kara saw a kick impacting Lena's head.

"LENA!"

"You've already been humanized… corrupted by this woman." Walter cried with disappointment, and Kara fought to resist kryptonite. "You've betrayed our Rao; you've chosen the safety of this Luthor over him; you've became an enemy."

"KARA!" and then a single shot broke in.

Above Walter's shoulder, Kara saw an unmoving Lena lying on the floor.

"NO!" Kara threw herself at the front to reach Lena, causing the loss of Walter's balance, pouring some of the liquid kryptonite on the floor. This made the man get angrier. Someone grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back until the ceiling became her view and a pissed biologist forced her mouth open.

"You've betrayed us! Betrayed Rao!"

When Kara saw the cup above her, she could do nothing to fight back except tried to turn her head to both sides, but it didn't work and more faces covered her view.

Some liquid descended through her throat and it hurt as nothing she could ever imagine kryptonite would feel like. Some drops fell on her face and it burn.

Supergirl had no idea where it came from; maybe it was adrenaline, maybe it was the emergency situation, or maybe the green threat ripping her from inside. Whatever it was, she felt her eyes burning when fury reached the top of her and an intermittent heat vision emerged from her pupils, shocking the scientist.

Walter yelled in pain as light hit him, his body jerked backwards, letting the cup fall off his hand next to Kara, not only it had been Kara, but also a hardly conscious Lena had stabbed the spatula in his left leg.

"FREEZE!" Lena heard gunshots in the background, thinking that was it. Her lower ribcage side was killing her, literally.

The crowd started to move in all directions and the Luthor realized those gunshots weren't from the Cult, it was from someone else.

Walter stoop up, then placed himself above Lena, surrounding her neck with both hands in a tight hold where the lack of air made Lena's vision start to go black. He lifted her a little only to immediately hit her head on the floor.

She heard Kara coughing in the back; she didn't want that sound to be the last thing to hear.

Another gunshot broke in and Walter fell completely on her, unmoving.

"Miss Luthor." A man's voice said. Walter's body was removed and her body claimed for air in a desperate gasp; she felt like a fish out of water when her chest automatically moved in aggressive tugs. Her mind was numb, all she felt was the pain in her ribcage bones, fire in her left lower side, and a dry throat sucking air in by instinct. She recognized Alex's voice assisting Kara, who sounded like throwing up. Alex's voice was flat initially, then it broke while instructing her sister to breathe in, while asking her to stay awake, to hold on. Firm hands pressed her left side bringing her back to her own necessities. "Gunshot! I need medics, now!" The man who was helping her commanded.

Her family was definitely cursed; neither Lex nor Lillian had died for their actions, maybe she was the one to face death first. A faint smile crossed her face, because in the middle of misery, at least she knew they were being helped; someone cared for her.

TBC…


	6. Chapter 6: Dive

**Happy weekend to everyone! Thank you so much for all of your positive vibes and support (I wish you had accounts guest reviews! I'd love to reply to you); here's the new chapter, ENJOY!**

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters. They all belong to CW's Supergirl.

…

CHAPTER 6: Dive

…

"Easy, Miss Luthor." Someone touched her arm.

Oppressed by fear, Lena's first reaction was to remove her arm. She tried to move but pure pain ran inside her, making her glue to the bed.

"Miss Luthor!" The voice sounded stressed, then it changed into one with a flat tone. "Stay still, otherwise you'll hurt yourself; you're safe now."

Lena had to swallow hard to suppress a scream, taking deep breaths as carefully as she could. It wasn't just the fragile sensation, she had a terrible headache she could not entirely remember where she got from; had she had a concussion?

"My name is Doctor Carter; member of the Department of Extranormal Operations. You were rescued alongside Supergirl."

Her eyes snapped open at the mention of her friend.

"S-Supergirl…"

"Miss Luthor…"

"Where is she?"

"Still recovering."

"Lena." Alex trespassed the door of the room, sighing with relief.

The first thing to notice was how numb Kara's sister looked.

"Alex, where's Kara?"

It took the older sister a few seconds to reply realizing Lena knew her sister's identity. She finally did, explaining Kara was still being treated under solar lamps.

The older sister moved aside, allowing Lena to see Kara on a sunbed next to hers. There was not any dim light here to hide bruises. Under that mix of white and yellow light, she saw the lack of color in the Kryptonian's motionless figure. Every wound, every hand printed on her skin, every purple tone under her skin. The more harm she noticed, the more she hated those from the cult… they had to pay.

"J'onn Jones had to go into your mind…"

"My apology for the intrusion." A green alien interrupted, causing Lena to jump a bit. "J'onn Jones, head of the DEO."

"I've seen you before." Concluded Lena, drinking some water Alex handed. "What do you mean you went into my mind?"

"I am a telepath; in order to know what both, Kara and you, went through, I had to dive into your mind to understand what you both experienced in there. As I could see, you already know the truth about Kara; due to her Kryptonian nature, I can't read her mind; you were my best witness."

"I understand." Lena nodded.

"Also, Miss Luthor... We asked Kara not to reveal herself as security protocol, we share responsibility on that." He pointed out clearly.

"How is she? How long did I pass out?"

"Four days." Replied J'onn.

"What?"

"You've got beaten up pretty hard, Miss Luthor. Bruises and cuts throughout your body; our focus is on the impact your head received, a couple of broken ribs, and the gunshot on your right lower side. You need to rest."

"What about Kara?" She turned her head to Alex.

"Hasn't woken up yet… um…" It was the first time ever Lena saw Kara's sister hesitating. "I'm glad you're awake, because I need to confirm some of my theories regarding Kara's recovery."

"What do you need?" She pushed the agent to be objective. Alexandra Danvers was the type of women in balance, steady, analytic, in perfect synchrony with her surroundings… now something was off; her closed fists, tense jaw and eyes revealed it.

"J'onn went into your memory to watch what happened, but you got a concussion, your brain was in a delicate condition; we couldn't risk your life by going deeper into your mind; such impact could cause a stroke. We had access to some flashes… candles, chains, a lab, pain…" Alex gulped, "we saw Kara…" the agent's voice broke a bit and J'onn jumped in to complete her words.

"Kara's body isn't responding as we expected it would. Walter Jonson is dead, the chemist doesn't have a clue what Kara has in her system, neither any of the other members of the cult; I already scanned their minds. Seems like you were the only one who had access to his lab; we need details of what you saw."

"I saw Kara's blood condition; I never really analyzed what Walter gave to her, I could only see substances in the lab, I can list them all but… how is that you didn't check the lab for…"

"It was burned; ashes was what we found." A man Lena never saw in the past joined them. "Miss Luthor." He greeted with nod. "Jeremiah Danvers."

"Danvers?" Frowned Lena.

"Kara and Alex's father." He confirmed.

"I never heard about you."

"That's a long…" Started Alex.

"I used to work for Cadmus."

Lena's tongue got stuck. With eyes wide open, she froze for a moment processing what those words implied. "Kara is an…"

"Alien… I know."

"Did you betray her?" She asked with a dry voice. "You used to work for a woman who hates her and Superman more than any other alien on Earth." Lena pointed out.

"They came for Kara when she was still a kid; it was either me or her to be taken."

Lena's features relaxed a bit… still it wasn't enough.

"You gave Cadmus every knowledge you had about Kara; that creepy scientist told us his story in that basement, and now that memories are coming back, he did mention your name. He was the biologist involved with Kara's physiology; when you hacked the DEO he was finally able to create whatever substance to make Kara weak, to make her human. Kara is…"

"You knew Walter was gonna get it…" Alex frowned as she concluded.

"Sweetie…"

"Don't you dare to call me like that!" She reacted against her father. "I'm an agent in the DEO because of my connection with you, because of my connection with Kara… I chose to come here by giving up the path I initially wanted for me. I joined the DEO hoping I could find answers to your disappearance. Kara and I worked hard to get you back and you… you betrayed everyone in here. You handed your own daughter to death!" An angry Alex accused Jeremiah. "You… you gave them the missing pieces of the puzzle to hurt Kara." She started to walk forward; the Green Martian got in her way to stop her.

"Alex…"

"She's barely alive because of you!" The furious agent complained.

"Alex!" J'onn tried to calm her down.

"You gave them everything about her! You taught them how to destroy her! Do you know we both tried to find you since we were teenagers? Do you know how many times I blamed her for spoiling things at home?! Do you know how much I hated her?! Do you know how miserable she felt after you departed?! How miserable I made her feel?! She committed to find you, she promised me to do it, she did everything in her power to bring you back! She brought you back home, and you dared to cheat her, and me, and mom?!"

"They wanted her one way or another, Alex!" Countered Jeremiah. "I knew what Walter was doing because he was using my research, my methods; he was gonna experiment my unfinished work on Kara; I couldn't risk her like that. Cadmus persuaded aliens to work for them attending that bar all of you used to go to. After being shown how things were in there, it was me who suggested to use Mon-El as bait. It worked because when they had Mon-El and Kara, she volunteered to solar flare to protect him; my intention was to avoid Walter testing weird substances on her in order to leave her powerless. Once they got her blood, Walter was ready to work on her; I couldn't let that happen, thus I helped them escape; I was able to buy some time. Of course they realized what I did and punished me… I agreed to hack the DEO not only to protect you, but also Eliza. I was aware of the knowledge I was providing to Cadmus… I could see what was about to come, I knew how to deal with it; my mistake was to ignore what other things Walter would modify from my initial research, taking kryptonite from his days in Cadmus as well. I wasn't expecting him to join a cult either."

There was an awkward pause broken by Lena.

"You can go into my mind again and see everything clearer."

"No, you're injured, if I…" J'onn tried to explain.

"It's not a suggestion, I'm asking you to do it."

"Lena, you said you can list them all, maybe if we…"

"What if I miss something? We can't risk Kara…"

"We can't risk YOU." Cleared Alex.

"There's plenty of smart CEOs on this planet; there's a single female Kryptonian left in the whole universe."

"Miss Luthor…" J'onn tried to stop her.

"Earth needs Supergirl more than it needs a Luthor. Go ahead and read me; I'm willing to take the risk." And by her tone of determination, she left no possible answer to oppose her statement.

"Lena, you can't, Kara wouldn't agree…" Started Alex.

"I'll do it." Confirmed the Green Martian. "My powers, my terms. I'll go as deep as I can; if I notice the possibility of permanent damage on you, I'll stop immediately, regardless of how much we get. That's my condition, Miss Luthor."

Lena was not entirely convinced; however, she knew negotiations had benefits for both parties and the Martian had been clear.

"Deal." She nodded once, keeping her head up.

"I need you to relax, please lay your head and take deep breaths."

The very moment a parade of flashes traveled in her thoughts as if they were nightmares, the headache she had intensified. Walter came into view, Tony, Amanda… then Kara. It was definitely not a dream; firstly because it was painful; secondly, because it was extremely detailed. Memories of when she was tied, someone pulling her scalp, kicks hitting everywhere, Kara's voice yelling her name; Lena even thought the DEO was the dream and both were still trapped in that basement. A part of her consciousness let her feel tears slipping straight to the pillow, then she felt a hand which brought her back to the DEO, back to freedom. She felt her own body whimpering, heavy pressure in her brain, eyes closed, the AC air refreshing her wet forehead. It felt like being in two worlds at the same time; like being divided, mind in that basement, body at the DEO. Walter's lab came to view, all substances in front of her. In the middle of the chaos of multiple voices from the cult stuck in her mind, those who condemned her to die, the biologist's voice, then Kara's… she could hear J'onn's words, he was giving every name of the substances written on each bottle tag. Alex seemed to be replying to him, but their conversation sounded really far, getting out of her reach as her mind felt like it was about to explode. _"I'm stopping now!"_ Said the Martian. _"Got it!"_ Lena heard from Alex as the flashbacks started to fade, leaving nausea behind. Her senses began to land on the DEO. Exhaustion was nothing compared to how out of energy she was.

Lena's eyes opened a bit; someone was saying something she could not entirely understand; perhaps Alex was talking to her. It didn't matter, she wanted to sleep; after a few seconds of a blurry view, she managed to focus Kara unconscious next to her… it seemed like she was drifting into unconsciousness too.

 _"_ _The world needs you Kara… I need you too."_

Then reality went black.

TBC…


	7. Chapter 7: Ambush

**Hi! I will reply to your reviews asap! Ooooo finally I'm updating. I wanted to do it last week, but if I'm being honest with you, I needed a break of everything that's happened in my life in the last months, thus I did a small trip (and it worked great!) This story is close to be finished; I'm guessing a couple more chapters. THANK YOU to you who are reading these lines, it's priceless, and I hope that wherever you are on this world, a big hug from me can reach you.**

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters. They all belong to CW's Supergirl.

…

CHAPTER 7: Ambush

…

Kara began to stir and Alex felt her chest expanding with relief to let her breath. After all those days with no track of her location, of intrigue, of stress, of adrenaline, of hard work using Lena's, her mother's, and the reluctantly accepted Jeremiah's help… her sister was waking up; that only meant recovery.

All stats seemed normal for a Kryptonian; bruises were fading away, whatever substance Walter put in her was countered thanks to Jeremiah's knowledge of Walter and his procedures back in Cadmus. Many of Kara's cells had been destroyed because of Walter's attempt to make her vulnerable. Truth was, neither Alex nor her parents knew if Kara's powers would come back anytime soon… or at all. Physical response to sunlight was taking longer than expected; probably due to cellular regeneration.

All excitement of seeing both blue eyes opened, disappeared when the Girl of Steel lost consciousness again. In the blink of an eye, Alex looked at the monitor expecting to see irregularities, but saw none; everything looked normal. Maybe she had to keep waiting for Kara to wake up.

"Did she wake up?" Lena asked from the other bed, fighting to not fall asleep one more time.

"Not really. She just moved." She sighed.

"What time is it?"

"Umm… 17 past 4 in the morning." Replied Alex after looking at her clock.

"No wonder why everything is so quiet and crowd less."

"How are you feeling, Lena? Is there anything I can get for you?"

Now that Alex Danvers turned to look at her, Lena saw the lack of sleep in her skin, and in the bags under a couple of red eyes which apparently were swollen from crying. It wasn't that Lena had had a long talk with Kara's foster sister before, but she knew how much Kara cared for her, how much the Kryptonian admired her.

"I'm fine, just a headache; nothing important, it's getting better as time passes by." Lena pursed her lips unsure of digging into Kara's personal life. "I can't imagine what both you and Kara had experienced in the past, or the kind of life you've had."

Alex took a deep breath. "It was… It's been a wild ride."

"And I thought I had an 'interesting' time while growing up with the Luthors and all of that; but growing up with someone from literally another planet, it must have been a whole adventure." Lena offered a warm smile. "Considering your love for science, I guess you were excited about it."

"Not exactly."

If the Luthor believed she was achieving to reduce tension in the room, the opposite happened.

"Kara and I didn't work really well initially. I was a teenage, thus all of the 'none of my business/I hate her' scenarios were our daily life. I was often pissed with her being around."

Alex kept quiet for half a minute. The conversation wasn´t over and Lena was sure of that. Alex's face couldn't lie and the way her mouth was moving as if deciding whether to keep going or not, let the Luthor know there was nothing she could say, and suddenly she found herself in a talk in which probably she was not the best option as listener; of course Alex would be indecisive about sharing a personal story; nevertheless, somehow the two of them were comfortable… thus she waited.

"Then as you know, dad left home and I blamed Kara right away… When we were informed of his presumed death, I started to understand a bit what losing someone was, I started to understand Kara; except deep down a part of me kept resenting her for making him go away." She made a pause to control her shaking voice. "I realized Kara always knew it. During the red-k she stated the fact that deep down I hated her."

"Kara knows you love her, Alex." Lena assured. "She talks about you a lot and there's this 'my hero' face everytime she describes you."

Alex smiled at the comment.

"I know." The agent grabbed Kara's pale hand.

"The two of us have learned about compassion thanks to the siblings we got, haven´t we?" Concluded Lena.

"Yeah. We had a fight the last time I saw her, I wanna fix things up. I charged on her the first time my dad came back and betrayed us; I thought I learned to trust Kara unconditionally after that, but again, I chose to listen to my hurt feelings and Kara is the one harmed this time." Alex hesitated for a second, afraid to ask. "Please be honest, Lena. Did Kara believe, even for a second, that I wouldn't go after her?"

"She knew you'd go after her, she just thought she wouldn't make it." Lena's eyes focused on Kara. "She gave me her final words for you, just in case." She waited for Alex to compose after listening to that. "The night your team rescued us, before you arrived, I was tied next to Kara, when I saw blood coming out of her nose, I think she perfectly understood it was internal bleeding. She told me I was there because of her fault, and I made sure to explain how it was my last name and my family's background with a super which had me there that night." Lena changed her position into a more comfortable one on the bed. "Walter started to speak out loud his speech to welcome everyone; while they were distracted, Kara looked at me and said…"

"Please don´t." Alex interrupted her. "I'm aware of the risky situations we put ourselves everyday; but saying goodbye… I-I'm never gonna be ready for that. I couldn't…"

"A-Alex."

Kara's slurring voice caught their attention. The Kryptonian was awake, but something was off.

"Kara, hey…"

Alex didn't finish her sentence; she stood up in a second as blood started to come out of Kara's nose.

"What the…"

…

"What's wrong?" Eliza approached her husband noticing anxiety in the way he was rubbing his eyes while looking through a microscope.

"I can't entirely figure out what he gave to her. It's based on my research and if I analyze every component, I know what I'm dealing with, I just don't know why is that normal procedures aren't working as they should on her; she isn't healing as fast as she's supposed to."

Eliza started to check on the chart showing Kara's stats.

"She threw up most the kryptonite in her stomach when Alex found her; her body should be getting better. All these substances I knew about, and the ones Lena listed, they're all out; her blood is clean."

"Oxygen is low." Said Eliza checking on the latest results.

"What?"

"Except it makes no sense…" The woman took Lena's chart. "Lena's levels are normal, the procedure was the right one; why is Kara getting worse…?"

Jeremiah stood next to Eliza to check on those files.

"Levels of solar radiation were starting to stabilize; now they're going down…" He wanted to understand what the problem was. "There's been an increment of…"

Their eyes lowered down to the bottom of the sheet, where the doctor in charge signature was.

"Oh my God!" The chart slipped from her hands and Eliza ran out of the room, followed by Jeremiah.

…

It was then that in the middle of the night, inside an almost empty facility, rushed steps ripped peacefulness apart.

"Mom!" Alex intercepted the agitated couple in the middle of the hallway. "It's Kara, she's bleeding."

"Where's Hamilton?!" Asked Jeremiah passing her by without stopping.

"She's assisting Kara." Alex started to run with them. "What's happening?"

"It's Hamilton!" Said Eliza in anguish without pausing her steps. "She's one of them!"

…

Lena landed hard on the floor, pulling some sheets and her IV stand with her.

As soon as Alex had left the room after asking Hamilton to address Kara's bleeding, two other men entered the room. One of them she couldn't tell who it was, but the other one… that one spat on her during their last night in Walter's basement.

The unknown man was forcing Kara to stay in bed to give Dr. Hamilton time to prepare one more dose of the so familiar liquid Kara knew Walter used to use.

"No!" Lena tried to stand up, cursing in a low voice as her body complained with sudden movements. Her limbs wobbled under her weight, her ribs filled her torso with sharp punctures threatening to crack even more. "Leave her alone!"

"You will die tonight, Luthor!" The big man grabbed her neck to pull her up. "We'll clean the path for Rao to come! You are the dirt to be removed."

Something warm started to drain out of her torso and Lena realized her gun wound had opened.

"Hamilton!" Kara tried to make sense out of everything. "What are you doing?! What is this?!" Her body wasn't responding to her commands, too exhausted to react on time, too weak to fight back. "Stop this Dr. Hamilton!"

"My goddess, be quiet!" The man holding her in place covered her mouth.

In the back, Kara heard the thud sound of Lena being slammed on the wall. Her powers weren't there at their full, and for a moment she remembered the rush of adrenaline which helped her save James the first time she solar flared; she confirmed it when noises became louder, Lena's gasps, sobs and whimpers included. The CEO was everything but an enemy, and the kind of fear Kara felt building up inside after hearing Lena's suffering, the kind of anger boiling in her chest, her neck, her head, her eyes… it had to emerge. She closed her as hard as she could when unexpected pain burned her brain.

"All these years, worshiping your grace, your miraculous existence. It's been my honor, Kara. Rao will come to encounter us soon, Supergirl." Said Hamilton as she injected the substance into Kara's IV bag.

"Let her go!" Supergirl begged for Lena's sake.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" Kara heard Jeremiah yelling. Someone shot and Eliza screamed her husband's name, which scared Kara even more.

"No!" That was Alex's voice and another shot was heard, followed by a moan out of Lena's lips.

The Kryptonian turned her head to get her captor's hand off her mouth. This was her family, and no one was gonna take that away from her; not again, not ever.

"STOP YOU MANIACS!" Her eyes opened, pure rage being released in the form of heat vision.

The man pressuring her body onto the mattress was looking at her from above, which ended up in a melted head, a decapitated body falling limp on the floor.

"Kara…" Sounded a nervous voice; it was Alex, grabbing her hand in a reassuring squeeze. "You're safe, they're gone Kara; they are gone now, it's over." The younger sister felt a pinch when Alex extracted the IV needle out oh her veins, then she gave orders to some other meds. "Mom! Is dad ok?"

"I'm fine sweetie." He sounded hurt; however he was alive, and that was great.

Kara's first concern was to look at where Lena was supposed to be, and she found her, next to the other man's death body; she was still conscious, still breathing, being assisted by the meds Alex had assigned… damn she hated to see her friend bruised, swollen, bleeding; she couldn't help the blurry sight caused by fresh tears starting to stream down her face. She was furious and her body knew it, because a new wave of heat vision was building up in the back of her eyes, and Kara managed to settle it down.

"Lena…" She whispered, suddenly facing a floating sensation running through her body.

"She's here." Alex replied immediately. "She's getting help. She's alive Kara, she's here with us."

"Good." Said Kara in a barely audible voice.

"I need you to stay awake, Kara." The agent spoke to her, and Kara could feel her sister's trembling hands on her cheeks. "HELP! I need help!"

"…lex."

"You stay with me, ok? Stay with me, Kara…

Sounds gradually turned low, until reality faded to black.

TBC...


	8. Chapter 8: Luthor

Finally back! Guys, my apology for the long waiting. Things got seriously busy at work, new tasks and responsibilities, change of boss, blah blah blah… Although I had progress on the rest of the story, I didn't want to be back, then have you waiting again, thus I made sure to finish it before posting anything, and now, IT'S FINALLY DONE! I wanted to wait until next weekend, but nah, we're done with waiting, so I'll post them all this week. Thank you all for reading this fic. Big hug!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters. They all belong to CW's Supergirl.

…

CHAPTER 8: Luthor

…

"… Hamilton gave them access. She made sure to distract Thomas and Bill from the surveillance room so she could let those guys in to the DEO." Winn's hair was a mess proving the guy had been taken out of bed in the middle of the night with an emergency call.

"How was that you couldn't read her?" Jeremiah asked J'onn.

"Because of this thing." Winn let a bracelet fall on the circular table in the middle of the main operations room. "Seems like Walter provided the cult with more than just kryptonite from Cadmus. This bracelet basically shields its user from telepaths."

"We gotta track each of these maniacs."

"Hamilton is still alive. We're keeping her locked; she's our best shot to get them all." Explained J'onn.

"Luckily whatever Hamilton tried to administer into Kara's bloodstream didn't make it, we got there on time to pull the IV out of her. Lena on the other hand, is in a bad shape, recovering," Alex pointed out, "but it'll take time for her to recover… if any of those maniacs attempts against them again, if any of them tries to put a finger on Kara, I swear…"

"They won't." J'onn gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "As we speak, I'm monitoring every single human mind on this building."

"Isn't that dangerous for you?" Jeremiah stood up a bit concerned.

"I'm fine, I'm not focusing on each one, it's more like a wide reception, like an antenna; if I hear anything off, I put a spot on that immediately. I have the whole security team keeping their eyes on every corner in and outside the building; IT protocols re-established; scans, detectors, trackers on each employee; we're looking closely to everything. We can't take risks. I thought I could trust my people and they proved me wrong, so I'm taking control on everything now. What we have to focus on, is on getting the remaining members of the cult."

"I'm already working on it." Said Winn.

"What do you mean agent Schott?"

"We can gather these guys, we just need a bait; someone convincing enough regarding Kryptonian knowledge in terms not only of science, but also culture, especially on religion, someone who also has a link with Walter…" The IT guy looked at Alex's father. "Someone linked to Cadmus."

"What do we have of interest?" Jeremiah understood his plan.

"It's a big shot." Winn doubted a second. "We could provide some alien tech from the DEO disguised as if it was from Cadmus, to put up a show of 'magnificent' power. Also, Walter used kryptonite to reinforce his statements towards Krypton and its power over Supergirl, we have kryptonite hidden in the Fortress of Solitude. We need to ask Kara if…"

"NO." Cut Alex, opposed at the minimum suggestion of kryptonite involved. "I won't hand weapons to them."

"Technically we wouldn't give them a thing, Jeremiah would use it as a tool to impose authority over the Cult. Then we get in. It's like a mouse trap, we're just putting the cheese bait on their sight." Winn tried to negotiate.

"I agree with Alex about having kryptonite in a room with those people." J'onn said. "We have no guarantee someone won't try to steal some of it; just think about what having something from Krypton would mean for anyone from the cult; it'd be their best souvenir ever… an effective weapon to oppress Supergirl or Superman. I discard that option, what else do we have?"

There was a pause.

"We have a Luthor." Suggested Jeremiah, guilt painting his face as he spoke.

Everyone remained silent at his words.

"I can't believe you just said that." Alex started to walk away gesturing rejection with her hands.

"Alex, wait…" He stood up to go after her daughter.

…

When Kara opened her eyes, a flashback of the last events assaulted her mind compressing anguish inside her chest. The same feeling she had in that basement not long ago surged, it was only when she recognize the ceiling above her, the DEO's, that she could finally loosen up the grip her hands involuntarily had on the mattress.

Then she heard it… a heartbeat she had learnt to identify. Lena´s.

That meant her powers were coming back.

Next to her bed, she saw a vulnerable Lena for the first time. Dark bruises left as remainders of the brutality she had lived, shapes of red and purple covering her body, swollen areas contrasting against porcelain white; a white pad on the right side of her forehead, which made her remember a man kicking Lena's head. Kara's breathing started to be erratic as fury caused her fist to close so tight it hurt her bones. She wanted nothing but to get out of there and hunt them all, the cult had to pay for this, for hurting Lena; she was Supergirl, she was used to kicks and punches, she could heal fast, but Lena… Lena was kind, gentle, altruist; she didn't deserve to face these situations… Anger started to shift into sadness and her eyes became wet. Damn it, she was Supergirl! Yet she was helpless to do something, to get her best friend out of there; deep down, she had failed Lena, someone she had promised to protect.

"I'm so sorry…" She whispered between sobs. "I'm so sorry, Lena."

In that very moment, all Kara wanted was to go after them; nevertheless, her body felt as heavy as carrying a building, it didn't hurt as much as it used to, however try to move was hard.

"Don't be."

Kara turned to look at the CEO again and found a couple of tired green eyes.

"Hey…" She greeted, clearing her throat. "Hey boss."

"The boss has missed a few meetings." The Luthor joked but it had no effect on Kara.

"Sorry about that, nothing I can say is enough to apologize."

"Don't do this Kara, there's nothing to apologize for. It simply happened, and being a Luthor comes with a lifetime pass for risky rides. You're the Girl of Steel but as you mentioned before, you're not a god, you have weaknesses. Me in the middle of the equation came from my family's background too."

"I got scared." Kara confessed. "When I realized how powerless I was in there, I felt defeated and useless. I couldn't help you."

"Welcome to human mortality." Lena tried to warm things again. "And for the record, I got scared too… but not for myself. I got scared when I saw how bad you looked… I thought you…" Lena sighed. "My point is I can´t hate you, I was angry with you, but when I got close to lose you… I-I think… we've come to a point in which it wouldn't be easy not having you around. Despite what happened, you're my friend, the only one I have; plus, you had a good reason not to trust me, so my ego might be hurt, but at the bottom I understand your reasons."

"And at the bottom I had plenty of reasons to tell you the truth… I guess I've been scared of consequences since a while ago, and that caused things to get worse."

"Each of us already had a background to sort of… split us. Yet you decided to stay, and amongst all odds and danger you could put yourself into by being in the same room as I was, I mean c'mon there was a 'Beware the Luthor' note for you on my door," Lena relaxed when a chuckle came out of Kara, "but you stayed; I can't deny how much that means to me. You're one of the two or three people in this world who make me feel wanted and appreciated." She corrected her last sentence. "Oh wait, you're not from this world, you're Kryptonian… you're not in that list then, I take it back." Finally Kara laughed.

"To be fair, after all the Mon-El situation, I don't know what I would've done without you and Alex by my side, or if I…"

 _Alex, that's not what I intended to do. It could be our only chance…_

Kara frowned as her super hearing adjusted while listening to Lena's voice and heartbeats… and there were more voices; that was Jeremiah's voice… talking to Alex, apparently two or three rooms from the med bay.

"Kara?" Asked Lena.

…

"Stop both of you!" J'onn Jonzz interrupted Jeremiah and Alex's talk. "We're not in our best to be against each other."

"Lena is out of this." Defended Alex.

"What was your plan, Jeremiah?" J'onn stood next to Alex.

"You saw Lena's memories, the cult mentioned clearing the path, a goal they couldn't fulfill."

"I'm aware you'd do anything in your power to protect your daughters, but trust me on this one Jeremiah, Lena is nothing like Lex or Lillian, she's a good person; miss Luthor used as bait is unacceptable, we won't…" Something captured the Green Martian's mind and his head turned in the direction in which an alerted thought was. Like an antenna, he had said and his senses had worked successfully.

"What's going on, J'onn?" Alex knew something was happening.

"It's Kara." He rushed out of the room followed by Alex and Jeremiah.

 _Kara, wait!_

They heard Lena's voice at the distance as they reached the hall. Being guided by Lena's voice, the agents saw Kara exiting the med bay walking towards them, leaned on the wall and stumbling on her feet.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT." The pale blonde girl stated.

J'onn moved forward just in time to catch her before she impacted the floor.

Alex went after her too. "What are you doing, Kara?! You shouldn't…"

"Use me as bait if you want to, BUT LENA IS OUT OF THIS." Her tone cold as she spoke to Jeremiah. "Who are you? You sound just like her, Jeremiah. You sound like Lillian Luthor."

Carefully, the Martian carried her in his arms. "Let's get you back to bed. It's clear your powers are coming back."

"Whatever your plan is, I won't let you take Lena." Kara hissed Jeremiah over J'onn's shoulder.

"What plan?" Lena asked from her bed. "Tell me, what plan are you talking about?" She demanded.

After placing Kara back on her bed, J'onn and Jeremiah exchanged sights of uncertainty, so Alex took the lead.

"A plan to capture the rest of the cult, there are still members of it out there; we can't risk citizens, and of course we can't risk Kara or you." The agent looked at her father when she said the last word.

"And what do I have to do with the plan Jeremiah suggested?"

"No, Lena…"

"It's ok Kara, I want to know." She countered with determination.

"I mentioned the possibility of placing you as bait, so we can persuade them to gather and try to 'clear the path'."

Kara huffed. "I can't believe you said that again."

"A plan that won't happen." Concluded Alex.

"Unless…"

All eyes fell on J'onn.

"What if I shape into Miss Luthor?"

TBC…

Two more chapters to go!


	9. Chapter 9: Boom

Here's the update. After this one it'll be one more chapter to go. Thank you guys!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters. They all belong to CW's Supergirl.

…

CHAPTER 9: Boom

…

Surprisingly, Hamilton told the truth a couple of days in the past, when she confessed the way the cult used a special code to schedule meetings. The code to gather them all had been used by Jeremiah Danvers; tonight was the night prepared for whatever happened, Jeremiah was standing at the front, and a fake Lena Luthor was tied at his feet; J'onn had done a marvelous work buy mirroring Lena's wounds and bruises. A small crowd had gathered in the hall wearing blue robes, Jeremiah was wearing the one the DEO had forced Hamilton to hand in.

The DEO had adapted an abandoned house in the city limits to make it look like a sacred place inside; it wasn't an exact Fortress of Solitude, but the team had done an amazing job by getting inspiration from it, thus the place looked shiny and pure, it was just appearance since there wasn't ice, but the walls, the smell, candles, Kryptonian symbols Jeremiah and Kara had provided, every detail had a purpose; which seemed to be perfect since no one from the cult had visited the Fortress, and whatever hint of Kryptonian culture was deeply appreciated by them.

"Behold the path to our creator!" Jeremiah exclaimed with arms wide open. "Most of you might wonder who this servant is;" he placed one hand on his chest, "my name is Jeremiah Danvers, former Genetic Engineer at Cadmus, co-worker of Walter Johnson." A few members started to whisper to each other, thus Jeremiah kept talking to reinforce his statements. "Our brother spent his time, his service, and above everything, he shared his wisdom with us, humble servants." Jeremiah started to walk slowly to cover most of the false altar they had put in place; it wasn't exactly like Walter's basement, but it was following the same style. "May his sacrifice not be in vain, may all of us honor him tonight!" Many heads nodded and some members started to cry with a sadness the agent could not comprehend; not that he really cared to understand, his attention now was on the fact he had achieved to move this people emotionally, to get into them. "Walter and I started to build this place to offer Rao our prayers." He approached a crying women to hand her a tissue and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It is not entirely finished; nevertheless, recent obstacles didn't allow us to accomplish our duty." Jeremiah turned on his heels to look at Lena Luthor.

J'onn was a little bit uncomfortable, not because of the ties he could easily undo, but because of the multiple eyes on him. Jeremiah was a good actor, because now J'onn could sense the way people started to agree with his speech. A wave of curses and hard feelings reached his mind and this time his gasp was real. The Martian closed his eyes tight then shielded his mind from all foreigners' thoughts… except hatred eyes kept looking at him. How had Lena endured this hate? And not only from these people, but also from every Superman or Supergirl admirer who linked her with Lex Luthor. These humans didn't even know Lena Luthor, yet hate was their way to welcome her.

"Kill her!" Someone yelled from the crowd and many more cheered up the protest.

"Kill the witch!"

"Punish her!"

"Shame on her!"

"Traitor!"

"Die!"

"Burn her!"

"Sinner!"

"She deserves to die!"

The crowd was suddenly agitated; Jeremiah hesitated for a second when he feared losing control of the situation.

"Tonight!" He made his way back to the altar. "Tonight we will succeed!" He took control of the herd again. "Tonight…" He lowered his voice so the cult slowed down in order to listen to his words. "Tonight we bring light;" he said in a compassionate voice, "tonight we will honor our brother; tonight we will be listened; tonight we will be forgiven; tonight we'll be enlighten; tonight brothers and sisters… we'll clear the path for Rao to come."

…

"No." Lena spoke firmly as she saw Kara getting off bed. Both of them knew the plan, and Kara was finishing to pull out the IV; as the kryptonite needle got away from her skin, the wound healed immediately. "Kara…" Lena's voice was serious.

"I trust them Lena; I trust Alex, I trust J'onn… I really do… I just have this uncertainty that… this feeling that something is not ok, and I can't be at peace if my mind is playing ugly scenes of what could go wrong." Countered Kara. "Besides, it's been days now and my powers are back."

"Maybe they are, but Kara… you don't look ok; you're still pale, do you think I didn't notice the slight trembling your body still has? You have to fully recover first."

Kara sighed. "My family is involved in this, Lena; I can't risk them, not if I have the power to help."

Knowing Kara wouldn't change her mind, the Luthor wanted to do something too. "Let me help you then."

"What? No." Frowning, the Kryptonian rejected the proposal. "I need you to get rest."

"I'm not the only one who does."

Kara hesitated for a second before approaching Lena's bed to sit down on the edge of the mattress and take her hand. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah… not healing powers like yours but my mind is fine."

"Are you sure?" Kara joked. "Rational thinking would consider resting a lot more."

"Shut up." Lena smiled. "The thing is…" Her features changed. "I'm scared something might happen to you again. Those people…"

"Hey…" Kara's free hand placed under her chin, making the CEO lift her head until her eyes were caught by Supergirl's. So Lena wondered, was it the suit, or the pain killers, or maybe the sun lamps on the bed next to hers? Whatever it was, Kara's eyes had recovered that sparkling touch they had, and the tone of blue was the shiniest one she had ever seen. _Must be alien nature_ , her mind concluded. "I'll look over my shoulder, I promise. Plus, this time I also have people covering my back."

"I don't want any of those maniacs near you…" Lena took Kara's hand to contemplate the grayish tone it still had compared to what her hands usually looked like, they were also lacking warmth.

"I'll be back soon."

"Promise me." Lena's eyes were tired but they had this magnetic attraction to capture anyone into them. It was a rare thing to watch; Lena Luthor was rock, she was a professional at hiding emotions… except in front of Kara, the only one who had ever seen her vulnerable.

Kara realized she had not really a guarantee of coming back, she didn't want to promise that. She stayed silent, gaze down, and then back to Lena. Suddenly she felt this outer force, which felt like being pushed closer to Lena; her mind stopped and everything else fell on a second level, because the priority right now was Lena. None of them had moved and both were just staring at each other. Supergirl hesitated for a second… then she leaned in.

The very moment her lower lip touched Lena's upper one, when a human heartbeat was altered and she could smell Lena's skin… she realized what she had done. There was an awkward pause and she was about to pull back, however the Luthor placed a hand on her cheek and her lips kissed her back.

It was soft, unplanned, and merely impulsive, thus when they broke apart Lena spoke first:

"The thing is… you've become someone really important to me Kara Zor-El. You better come back if you ever want me to kiss you again."

"I have a condition too." Still blushed, Kara smiled.

"These are serious business then?" Lena's left eyebrow lifted and she gave a sided smile.

"A date."

"Deal, Miss Danvers."

…

Jeremiah took a short sword, which was placed on a small table nearby the altar. A flashback of Winn meticulously adding the crest of El on its sheet was played in his head, it indeed looked like a sacred weapon.

The fake Lena Luthor looked at him.

 _"_ _Guys… we might have a problem."_ Winn's voice said through their earbuds.

 _"_ _What do you see, Agent Scholt?"_ Asked J'onn whispering without moving Lena's lips.

The team of DEO agents awaiting outside of the house stood in expectancy of orders. The place was completely surrounded and the Beta team was hidden at the basement and inside some of the furniture in the rooms next to the hall. Alex waited for any sign of a thread. Hidden inside a closet in the corner of the room, through the grids, she saw her father's back standing in front of J'onn/Lena.

"I'm trying to scan the place, but whatever their robes are made of, they're blocking any sensor and I can't see what's beneath them. Do not engage until we are certain…"

As Winn spoke, some of the men and women stepped aside in a single coordinated movement, creating a fringe with an open view between Jeremiah and… that was when J'onn/Lena saw the tip of a gun coming out of the robe of a young man and a red dot on Jeremiah's forehead. The false Lena Luthor easily ripped her ties to tackle the Jeremiah out of the bullet's way.

That was when chaos began.

"Kill the Luthor!"

J'onn followed the voice until he reached its owner's mind only to find that a man was running after him and Jeremiah on the ground… his mind concentrated in… right hand… stabbing. The fake Lena Luthor turned around with inhuman speed to catch the wrist holding a large dagger. Disguising wasn't needed anymore, so he shape shifted.

Another gunshot crossed the air passing near the Green Martian's head, a bleeding cut left after it's touch. J'onn heard more gunshots and he was suddenly surrounded by what looked like a human stampede. Some candles fell and flames rose up.

"FREEZE!" The DEO made their entrance.

…

Jeremiah stood up completely disoriented by the change of environment. Where did all of this came from? J'onn started to use his speed to move through bullets, bodies and…corpses.

A fist impacted the scientist's cheek, thus he fought back.

"Did you think Walter never warned us about you, Jeremiah Danvers?!" His opponent, asked with rage. "You would oppose to him from the very beginning. You would try to stop us! You would help Cadmus and the Luthor! You would help her to destroy Kal-El and Kara Zor-El!"

Jeremiah found himself being pushed against a wall; the member of the cult was strong to the point where the scientist suspected he had been given some kind of substance to improve his skills, because this was stronger than average human strength.

"As soon as we saw your request for us to gather in here, we knew you would try to stop this. I admit we didn't believe you'd bring the Luthor, and now it's clear you lied, and the fact that you protect the Luthor family. We will rise, Jeremiah, and not a single person like you will cease our progress..." Jeremiah kicked his knee and broke free.

Launching himself towards the tall man, he targeted his waist so both went down. Jeremiah raised his enhanced arm to land a punch straight to the man's temple, knocking him out of the way.

…

J'onn was assisting the DEO, his team had a few loses but nothing compared to the loses the Cult of Rao was having. It was getting harder to move through corpses or people acting merely by instinct. This looked like a fight in the wild. The fire started by candles had spread in the corner of the room and a woman wearing a robe was rolling herself on the ground to stop the flames at her feet while others tried to help her.

…

Alex stumbled when someone pushed her left shoulder from the back; she lost balance and her wrists were grabbed aiming to force her hands to release the grip on her gun. Tom, one of her fellow agents, held whoever was grabbing her.

…

"Martian!" A woman called from the crowd.

J'onn looked at her and saw a yellow beam about to be discharged in his direction… the woman pulled the trigger and the Green Martian was thrown backwards, breaking two walls in the way.

Alex saw what happened, heading the direction the Martian had been thrown. The woman aimed Alex and shot.

"NO!" Jeremiah tackled the shooter out of time, after the beam had been released.

Alex saw the intense light getting close and the heat from it burned even at the distance, everything happened so quickly… a silhouette crossed her way… then flying backwards… then being surrounded… then the impact of a crashing wall… then finally landing against something soft.

"That was a close one." The agent heard her sister's voice under her body. "Are you ok?"

Alex was angry.

"W- What? You aren't supposed to be here, Kara!"

"Well, you aren´t supposed to be flying through walls." Kara countered. "Let's go help the others."

…

Some of the members were already handcuffed and being taken into the DEO vans. While Kara was finding J'onn, Alex helped her father and other agents to set things under control. They had been trained to suppress alien threats, but taking humans down was a compulsory measure now; it was either the DEO or the cult, and calling the NCPD was useless in matters of time. Besides, there were some opponents who seemed to be upgraded, their strength and speed was better than average; there were also complications because of the robes covering them. This people were clever, they had disguised to hide amongst themselves then surprise in a deadly way, these were tactics, everything had been planned to confuse; what other weapons could they have under the robes? Were they all made with tech from Cadmus?

The heat from the fire was intense.

Alex's fellow agent Tom, was shot on the right leg. Two other agents dragged him until he was covered. Numbers were going down and some members of the cult were tired or giving in.

Alex threw a pair of handcuffs to Jeremiah, so her father could capture a man he had subdued.

"We need to get out! The house will collapse, the fire is out of control!" Warned Jeremiah. "Everyone out!"

A thud sound distracted everyone, but the explosion didn't send bodies flying, so what has it been?

The team looked around searching wounded members but saw none. The only thing that emerged from the crowd was… smoke. It spread all over the place, it had been a smoke bomb.

The DEO was blinded from their own and the cult.

Air was dense to breath and Alex felt dizzy; she wasn't the only one because the coughing traveled through the smoke.

Later, there was a breeze. A cold breeze the older Danvers recognized as Kara´s super breath.

Once the space was clear again, Kara and J'onn saw the mess of people on the floor.

"STOP THIS!" Yelled Supergirl.

Everyone turned up to see Supergirl floating above their heads.

The members of the cult kneeled admiring the Krytonian on their heads. Just as calm returned to the room. Someone spoke.

"My goddess." A single man was on his feet. "We've failed to bring a Luthor at your feet. Please receive us as Earth's offering to clear all disgrace humanity has caused to your divine kind. May all of us join in Rao's light." Having said that, he opened his robe to reveal a chronometer counting 00:00:04 backwards on his chest and tiny packs of explosives attached to his body.

Neither Kara or J'onn gave a second thought; both of them launched towards the man, hugging both sides of him to contain the explosives, shielding everyone else in the room.

"NO!" Alex's voice echoed the room.

Then BOOM.

TBC…


	10. Chapter 10: Human

My sincere appreciation to all of you, who took the time to read this story, who left a review, who was encouraging towards it. Thank you so so so so much for your support! Here's the final chapter of this one.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters. They all belong to CW's Supergirl.

…

CHAPTER 10: Human

…

Lena's eyes opened abruptly as the sound of rushed steps and rolling wheels were heard on the hall.

"Miss Luthor…" One of the doctors was in the room with her, the woman left the chart on the table and tried to push her back to bed, but her gaze was also looking at the increasing noises.

"What's going on?" She asked, her voice slurred due to medications.

Lena's answer came quickly when Alex's voice was overhead giving instructions. Suddenly, it looked like a parade of a medical team through the hallway. She couldn't focus properly, but black and white frames walked in a hurry to another area on the med bay.

"Please calm down." The doctor cautiously pressed her back to bed.

"I want to know wh…" Whatever was being pumped into her system did its job to sedate her.

.

When the Luthor woke up again, there were two other _beep_ sounds in the room besides hers. In difference from the last time she was awake, her sense of reality was back and her eyes perfectly adjusted to every detail on the ceiling, the halo of a different light was spread on it. Lena's head turned to the right, only to face Alex's back, seated next to another bed, in which Kara was lying, her face covered with purple bruises, pink marks and deep lines which seemed like scars. J'onn J'onzz was on the third bed, his green skin had different colors on it just like Kara's.

"Alex?" She asked in a low voice, afraid of waking up Kara and the Martian.

Alex jumped a bit at the sudden sound of someone talking. "Hey." Lena saw how the agent rushed to use the back of her hand to wipe something off her face before turning to her. Naturally, red eyes and blue bags couldn't be hidden. "How are you feeling, Lena?"

"What happened? Why are they here? Is Kara ok?"

"Calm down, Lena." Alex walked towards her when Lena's screen showed an increased level of heart beating. "They're gonna be fine." She placed both hands on Lena's shoulders. "The worst part is gone, they're recovering."

"What about the cult?"

Alex's gaze darkened. "They're all gone."

"What?"

"One of them wrapped himself in explosives to die for their cause as a last resource. Since we were out of time, Kara and J'onn used themselves as shields to contain the man and the explosion from the rest of us… and whatever flammable compound they used was, it affected both; luckily, they indeed used Cadmus and my dad's research to create it, thus dad found a way to counter attack the effect and treat them… at least having been in Cadmus was worth for something.

"If they stopped the man with explosives, why is the rest of the cult gone?"

"They killed themselves." Alex lowered her gaze. "Remember those methods soldiers used during world war II, those in case they were captured for information?"

"You mean poison?"

The older sister nodded. "Everyone had one and used it when the explosion happened."

Lena signed, stretching her arm to reach a bottle of water, but Alex was quick to pass it on before the Luthor hurt her ribs again. "Got it."

"Thanks. Then why were you crying, Alex?"

It took a few seconds for Alex to talk. "I was terrified. Me and Kara weren't at best terms before you were taken… I got her back but I almost lost her. Then I almost lost her again… and I know her, she's probably going to blame herself for what happened. These people worshiped her as their god. She'll feel guilty now that they're gone. Even after the first time they attempted to attack people during the ice hockey match, we had a talk that night in this same room, while she was recovering after solar flaring. She was worried about how many others there would be out there. Now the cult vanished stating they had only acted for 'her' cause."

"People tend to lean on whatever ideology they believe will help them understand their existence."

"It's easy for you and me to understand that, the unexplored side of rational thinking… the problem is… this spoiled Kryptonian over here is an emotional one." Alex half smiled pointing her thumb backwards towards Kara.

"I heard that." Replied Kara in a tired voice.

Less than a second later, Alex was on her, resting her forehead on Kara's forearm. "Seriously Kara… you and J'onn are gonna make me..."

The blonde used her free hand to caress her sister´s hair. "And as usual, you used your super powerful brain to fix us up."

"This time it wasn't me, though." Alex's eyes met Kara's. "It was mom and dad… and speaking about him…" she gulped, "what I said the other night, before the fire in which all of this mess started…"

"Alex…"

"No," Alex raised her index finger, "let me finish." She took a deep breath. "I owe you a huge apology for what I said." Words left her mouth while grabbing the pale and bruised hand as delicately as she could. "Of course you wouldn't trust dad, not after what he did, and of course I shouldn't have trusted him right away, it was absolutely logical to be cautious, but I couldn't…"

"Jeremiah is your father, Alex." Kara's tone was just as sweet and warm as the one she had the day they talked about Maggie. "Even if you knew, you wouldn't be able to hate him, you can't… I mean, despite what my parents did with the medusa virus, with prisoners in Fort Rozz… I'm not able to hate any of them; that's why I understand. Plus, he saved our lives." She smiled.

"Yet it doesn't excuse my words to you about leaving people go away, that was a low blow, specially 'cause I know how much you care for everyone."

Kara stopped looking at Alex, placing her eyes on the sun lamp above her. "You were right though, about leaving people go away. After Krypton, I finally realized how dependent I am of having others around me, how lonely I really feel, how terrified I am of losing people… I learned that even if I wished with all my heart for people to stay, I can't tie them to me. So yeah, I rather get sad if that means someone else's happiness… because yes, somehow I've become used to losing people, just as I'm aware I can be gone anytime too." She looked at Alex again. "I know everything you've sacrificed for me and the price you and your family had paid. I'm sorry I've made your and Eliza's life more difficult since then."

Lena stayed silent while hearing this conversation, it was an awkward position to be there, except she couldn't stand up yet to go out of the room, besides, this was probably the most open Kara she'd ever met. She might had heard terrible stories about a super from her brother, and now the alien she had fallen for sounded more human than her own family members.

"Kara…" Alex tried immediately to intervene.

"Deep down, Alex… I know both of us have questioned what could've happened without me. You'll say it's not my fault, and maybe not directly, but somehow it is, that's why Jeremiah is a delicate subject to talk between us. We can't deny it."

"And being forced to work for Cadmus in order for you to stay in our family, is a price I'd pay over and over again, sweetheart." Jeremiah spoke from the door, standing next to Eliza. "Things just happened Kara, none of us knew things would go this way." He came closer to take her hand. "But I would certainly go through everything again for you if I need to."

"All of us would, Kara." Eliza stood at her feet. "We're the thankful ones."

A few seconds went by.

"I'll hand you a tissue." Jeremiah changed the subject out of nowhere, walking towards Lena, who hadn't even noticed the tears on her face.

"Are you feeling better?" Eliza analyzed her vitals.

"Oh… yeah, yeah, I'm much better."

"J'onn is improving too." Said Jeremiah from the other bed where the Martian was recovering.

"Lena, you heal fast… I mean to be a human." The older woman gave her a kind smile.

"Good." Replied Kara from her spot. "Then we'll be able to go on our date soon."

Lena blushed.

Everyone stayed quiet whilst Alex turned to look from the Luthor to her sister. "Ok," she suspiciously laughed, "then I'm sure Lena would like to join our family reunion party too."

"I-I'd love to, yeah." Nodded a nervous Lena Luthor.

"We should leave them rest properly. You'll tell me everything, later." Alex blinked at Kara. Everyone started to leave the room and before going out the older sister spoke to Kara in a low voice. "And Kara…" she kissed her forehead, "I love you, no matter what, or how, or when; you're my sister, and I love you."

"I love you too, Alex."

.

They were alone now, except from J'onn, but he was still asleep.

"How are you?" The blonde asked in a sweet voice.

"Getting better, it's not as painful as it was, and my ribs seem to go well." Replied Lena.

"I didn't mean physically."

The Luthor offered a shy smile. "Concerned." She sighed. "I've been a Luthor for all of my life and I still don't know my own family. I don't know what else my mom has done, and the worst part is that now I'm not only worried about her leading Cadmus, but also what she has probably done outside. This was a cult neither of us saw coming, and when we did, it was already late. My mom had sneaked in it."

"How could you know that? Walter being linked to Cadmus in the past is not a guarantee your mother had something to do."

"Believe me Kara, I might not know my mom entirely but I do know she never miss a spot from people around her. Of course she allowed Walter to go as far as he could, of course she knew her weapons and tech was being filtered, and of course she knew you would intervene. Her territory is like a chessboard, she's the queen and she sees each movement and strategy; I'm aware of the kind of leader she…" Lena stopped when she heard Kara moving. She realized the Girl of Steel was stepping out of bed in the middle of tiny gasps. "What are you doing? You shouldn't…" The Luthor was about to press her red button to call for assistance.

"No, no… I'm fine, Lena. For real, I'm fine." She gave a tired smile.

"You're really bad at lying." The green eyed woman concluded.

After steady steps, Supergirl sat down on the chair Alex had used before. Finally reaching her destination, she leaned on Lena's bed. Something the CEO found cute, so she took Kara's hand.

"We'll figure things out, I am sure of it." Her blue eyes full of determination. "Once, I promised to always protect you, and I will."

"Then it'll be two of us, because I'll protect you too, Kara Danvers, or should I say Zor-El? Which one do you prefer?"

"I like when you call me by either of them." She looked up deciding. "You met me as Kara Danvers, I prefer that one or… you could call me Kara Zor-El Danvers." She shrugged, her bright smile appearing again.

"Very well then." Lena smiled too, pulling Kara's hand up to kiss it. "There's just... one more thing I want to say, but it isn't that simple."

The Kryptonian's smile disappeared; noticing the woman's next words were going to be serious. "You know you can tell me anything."

"Maybe I'm crossing the line." Lena was clearly uneasy, so Kara held her hand with a reassured squeeze. "I would be alerted having Jeremiah around. He's your family and I get that." She rushed to explain. "Cadmus has been his background for years, I'm just worried my mother has found a way to get to you, your family, and the DEO, all at once. I apologize if my words make you feel uncomfortable, I don't mean it like that, I just want you to be safe."

Kara stayed silent for a moment.

"The same idea has been in my mind for a while. I guess time will tell the truth; and yes, Alex, J'onn and I will take every caution with him."

"I'm sorry for intruding in that way."

"You're not, Lena. You're not the only one outside my family who suspects of Jeremiah; after what he did the last time he came to the DEO, we all are still finding out the truth."

"You'll have all of my help."

"I know." Kara smiled at her one more time. "Now let's focus on recovering," she stood up, "so we can go on our date." She kissed Lena's lips in a quick movement. "I'll go back to bed, if Alex comes back and sees me…"

"The Girl of Steel is afraid of her human sister." Lena laughed.

"Wait until you get to know her better. She is a badass, she always earns respect." Kara laughed too. "That's one of the many reasons why I love her."

The younger sister was about to go into bed when Alex made her entrance, freezing the Kryptonian with a gaze.

The next thing Lena enjoyed watching, was Supergirl being apprehended by her older sister.

Without a doubt, this was an alien with a human life.

THE END.


End file.
